Colorado named one of the best states in America for spotting a meteor

If you’ve ever stood in your backyard at 11 p.m. squinting at the sky and wondering if that was a shooting star or a plane heading into DIA, science says it was likely a meteor. Colorado ranks fifth in the nation for meteor-spotting in 2026, according to a new study from The Action Network — and the reason starts with something every Coloradan already brags about at sea-level dinner parties.

It’s the elevation. Colorado’s average elevation of 6,800 feet is the highest of any state in the country, which means you’re literally starting a mile closer to the show than almost everyone else. The Action Network analyzed all 50 states on dark-sky access, annual clear days, recorded fireball activity, observatories, DarkSky-certified places and average elevation, and Colorado came in fifth with a 4.08% model-based implied spotting probability — or +2,349 odds, for the sports bettors in the audience.

But the altitude is only part of it. Colorado has 22 DarkSky-certified places, the third-highest total in the country, giving stargazers plenty of options to escape Denver’s light pollution and get into genuinely dark sky. The state also has two Bortle Class 1 zones — the darkest classification possible, where the Milky Way casts visible shadows — and 17 Bortle Class 2 zones, which is an absurd amount of premium darkness for a state with 5.8 million people and a city that just hung a $1.8 million glowing sculpture in its convention center.

So where should you go? The study selected Dinosaur National Monument — tucked into Colorado’s far northwest corner along the Utah border — as the state’s single best spot to watch a meteor shower. It’s about a five-hour drive from Denver, which sounds like a lot until you remember that Coloradans routinely drive three hours to stand in a ski lift line. Five hours for a fireball seems reasonable.