the stars at night...

2 stellar West Texas parks are among the best places to stargaze in the U.S

With pandemic numbers expected to spike during the holidays and social distancing concerns on the rise, a trip to wide open Texas spaces may be just what the doctor ordered.

Fortunately, the Lone Star State offers no shortage of stellar stargazing spots, as evidenced by a recent guide by star map company, Under Lucky Stars. Two Texas public spaces score in the guide’s top 10 list of best national parks to enjoy celestial sights in the U.S.

To identify the ultimate stargazing destinations for visitors, Under Lucky Stars combed through each of the country’s 62 national parks and created a scoring system based on the number of visitors to the park, accessibility, and the light pollution of the park’s coordinates.

Texas’ Big Bend National Park ranks the highest, coming at No. 2, just after the Great Basin National Park in Nevada. Located in the southwest part of the state and bordering Mexico, Big Bend holds national significance as the largest protected area of Chihuahuan Desert topography and ecology in the United States, the guide notes. The park also boasts the entire Chisos mountain range.

Thanks to its vast surface area, Big Bend is heralded as one of the best stargazing parks, as it sees almost no light pollution. The park sees some 462,832 visitors annually and scores a 5 (the highest possible) for stargazing and a zero (the best) for artificial light in the ranking.

Elsewhere in the Lone Star State, the Guadalupe Mountains National Park comes in at No. 7 on the list. For the uninitiated, Guadalupe Mountains State Park is located in Salt Flat, Texas in the vast Chihuahuan Desert and is widely regarded for its bright-white Salt Basin Dunes, wildlife-rich grassland, and fossilized reef mountains.

The scenic range also protects the Permian fossil reef, the most extensive in the world. Guadalupe Mountains National Park sees a mere 188,833 annual visitors and scores and experiences very little artificial light, according to the guide. The park is beloved by hikers, even being noted by the New York Times as a “hiker’s paradise.”

For those looking to venture out to the nation’s best and brightest public spots, here are the top 10 national parks for stargazing in the U.S., according to Under Lucky Stars.

Great Basin (Nevada)
Big Bend (Texas)
Redwood (California)
North Cascades (Washington)
Voyageurs (Washington)
Lassen Volcanic (California)
Guadalupe Mountains (Texas)
Great Sand Dunes (Colorado)
Crater Lake (Oregon)
Canyonlands (Utah)

The stars at night are big and bright at Big Bend National State Park.

Photo courtesy Under Lucky Stars

The stars at night are big and bright at Big Bend National State Park.

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SOUTHERN EXPOSURE

Southern Living showcases design trends at Hill Country 'Idea House'

Photo courtesy of Laurey Glenn/Southern Living

The 4,000-square-foot Idea House in Frieden, a development in Fredericksburg, combines stone, brown siding, and a metal roof.

The 2026 Southern Living Idea House is now open for public tours in Fredericksburg, bringing the magazine's long-running showcase-home series back to Central Texas.

The 4,000-square-foot house is in Friedën, a planned community about three miles from downtown Fredericksburg. The development is expected to include roughly 230 to 250 custom single-family homes when complete, along with commercial space, retail, offices, multifamily housing, trails, lakes, and green space.

The Idea House program is part model home, part design experiment, and part brand statement for Southern Living. For more than 35 years, the magazine has worked with builders, architects, designers, and landscapers to create homes in different parts of the South, usually pairing regional references with current home-design trends. Past projects have included homes in Nashville, Louisiana, Georgia, coastal Texas, and the Carolinas.

$Southern Living Idea House 2026\u200b$ This room really plays with textures, including an abstract art piece that looks a little like crushed velvet.Photo courtesy of Laurey Glenn/Southern Living

Central Texas last hosted a Southern Living Idea House in 2018, when the magazine renovated a 1980s fixer-upper in Austin's Northwest Hills. That project leaned on local architecture and design talent to turn an older house into a more open, family-oriented home.

This year's Fredericksburg project is a new-build contemporary farmhouse. The exterior mixes limestone, brown siding, and a dark metal roof, with separate wings arranged around a broad drive. The home also has floor-to-ceiling windows, multiple porches, and a backyard fire pit, which are meant to connect the interiors to the surrounding Hill Country setting.

The design team included a secondary private casita, a feature Southern Living says was intended as a nod to Fredericksburg's historic Sunday houses. Those small in-town homes, traditionally near churches, were once used by German settlers who had to travel long distances into Fredericksburg on weekends for church, shopping, and social visits.

$Southern Living Idea House 2026\u200b$ Dark wood cabinetry and brass hardware frame the kitchen’s veined stone backsplash and large island.Photo courtesy of Laurey Glenn/Southern Living

The interiors were split among three Texas designers: Jean Liu of Dallas, Marcus Mohon of Austin, and Paloma Contreras of Houston. The broader team includes builders Melanie Sparks and Chris McGinley of Kurk Homes, architect Andrew Bray of Mustard Architects in Fredericksburg, and landscape designer Melissa Gerstle of Dallas.

The kitchen uses dark wood cabinetry, brass hardware, pale pendant lights, and a heavily veined stone backsplash. It is more formal than a typical farmhouse kitchen, but the long island and six counter stools keep it oriented around gathering rather than display.

One bedroom takes a more traditional approach, with a four-poster bed, exposed wood beams, and green scenic wallcovering wrapped around the room. A matching green chair near the window and a pale patterned rug keep the palette tied together without making the room monochromatic.

$Southern Living Idea House 2026\u200b$ Green scenic wallcovering surrounds a four-poster bed beneath exposed wood beams.Photo courtesy of Laurey Glenn/Southern Living

Southern Living editor-in-chief Sid Evans said in the release that the house was designed to take cues from the Hill Country landscape while showing "a home that's as warm and welcoming as it is stylish and innovative."

Public tours run through December 20 at 518 Interlaken St. Tours are scheduled Thursdays through Saturdays from 10 am to 5 pm and Sundays from noon to 5 pm. Tickets are $44, with part of the proceeds benefiting Operation Finally Home, the Hunt Preservation Society, and the Gillespie County Historical Society/Pioneer & Vereins Kirche Museums.

$Southern Living Idea House 2026\u200b$ Look out for this cover on newsstands to pick up a copy and learn more about the home.Photo courtesy of Laurey Glenn/Southern Living

Southern Living is also scheduling several event weekends during the tour run, including Volvo test-drive weekends and a Holiday Classics event from December 4-6.

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