Recognize this view? Many of you should. It’s a photo taken a few weeks ago of the San Francisco Peaks and Flagstaff, Arizona. A colleague shared the link to this NASA pic of the day last week, and honestly, if it wasn’t from NASA, I would have assumed it was photoshopped. It’s that unreal. When I moved up here, one of the first things I noticed was the strange orange streetlights everywhere and lack of unnatural illumination at night. After eight years, I’ve come to appreciate the protected skies we’ve been gifted with as the first International Dark Sky city. From the desert I grew up in the to the never ending skyline of my uncle’s ranch in Montana, Flagstaff boasts the most magnificent stargazing I have ever witnessed. There’s just something breath-taking and humbling when you can stare up at the sky and marvel at both how small you are and how big God is.

Click for full-size image.