The Dalles, OR's night sky, measured from orbit

The Dalles reads as rural on this dataset's scale. Little local light dome. Most stars are visible; the Milky Way is faint but often findable away from town lights. The Dalles's sky is brighter than 7.8% of the 3,206 cities in this dataset.

Note the source: a satellite reading of upward light, not a visual Bortle scale reading. The two measure related but different things.

The nearest darker sky to The Dalles

West Richland, WA, about 98 miles away as the crow flies, measures in the dark sky band, one step darker than The Dalles. Actual driving distance will run longer than that straight-line figure.

West Richland, WA is itself still a measured city, not a designated dark-sky park, this only compares against the 3,206 places this dataset covers.

How The Dalles compares nationally

The Dalles, OR has a population of about 15,884, one of 3,206 US cities of 10,000 or more residents in this dataset. The Dalles places 250 of 3,206 cities in this dataset's darkest-to-brightest order.