Hi everyone!

As the title says, I’m planning a gift for my boyfriends 40th birthday. He grew up in a major city and has never seen the night sky in all its glory. I grew up in west Texas in the middle of nowhere so dark skies are all I knew. For his 40th birthday I knew I wanted to plan a special trip but wasn’t sure where we should go, then it dawned on me that we could go see some dark skies! My first instinct was the Grand Canyon because he hasn’t seen that either.

I find myself feeling rather overwhelmed now though (thanks anxiety and adhd) so I’ve come here for help. I searched past posts but decided to go ahead and make one of my own. Hoping to go in July/August of this year and we can either road trip or fly, I’m open to it all.

Any advice on where to go? What’s the best spot during the summer? I keep reading big bend but I used to go there a lot as a kid and I’d rather go outside of Texas if possible.

Thank you so much for your help!

EDIT: Was asked to provide more details so here they are:

Timeframe - any time between June 2025-August 2025. Hoping to take a week off work to make it happen in case I take us the road trip route.

Budget - up to $1k-$1500

Travel Plans - I just want to have somewhere to stay and to see the stars with my partner. Think a Ron Swanson birthday but with your significant other. Neither of us mind being in the middle of nowhere. We are located in Central Texas and I'm happy to travel anywhere within the United States.

I recently moved to an area of Colorado that is slowly showing me who she is. The night sky turned out to be more spectacular than I could have imagined. My husband and I spent an evening with friends watching the sun go down and sunset turn into night. We have property about 6 miles east of Guffey, Colorado. It's so incredibly dark that after about 20 minutes you can see almost every star in the sky. It was so beautiful all I wanted to do was stare at the sky. I was wishing for a telescope.