Smokey Jack Observatory — Attraction in Westcliffe

Most amazing evening in July of 2019. My husband and I went for our honeymoon. I found this spot and the cute little town it’s in after digging online. We stayed in Colorado Springs and drove down to grab pizza, wine and to enjoy the sunset before our scheduled star party. It was nearly cancelled due to cloud cover but luck was on our side in that area. Only thing that wasn’t in our favor was that the observatory wasn’t getting power. A man (I wish I remembered his name but I can’t find our emails from 2 years ago) who volunteered to come out that cold night, gave a us a great tour of the sky without the telescope and I still think it was a great experience. Afterward, my husband and I blew up an air mattress in the bed of his truck and just watched the sky for a couple more hours before the cold was just unbearable even with all our layers and blankets. We could hear the wolves or coyotes off in the distance lol idk for sure what they were. We told the man that we would be back and hopefully bring our two daughter with us. And I think we might actually be bringing...

We specifically came here for a 2 night Dark Skies experience. Unfortunately because of the cloudy and rainy weather they cancelled both nights of star gazing. We are so thankful for the Astronomer and his wife who did end up coming to this pleasant small outdoor observatory to give us a presentation afterall. We were thrilled that we got to see a starlink satellite train just before it disappeared into the clouds. We learned so much from these amazing scientists. Thanks so very much. Unfortunately the 2nd night we did not receive a dark skies...

This is a review of the park not the observatory. a lot of people come to this park. park in the parking lot look at the mountains for 30 seconds and then look at their phones for another 29 minutes before they leave and they never get out of their car. the view from this park has got to be one of the most fantastic views of any town park in this country and that’s how people act. ...