Best Places to See Nature After Dark

The Monteverde Cloud Forest Biological Reserve is one of Costa Rica’s after-dark gems. Go on a tour in the daytime and you’ll see plenty of nifty tree species and, occasionally, a monkey or two—it’s a pleasant enough hike. But go at night, and the entire rainforest throbs with sounds you can’t otherwise hear and with organisms you can’t otherwise see in the wild. Highlights include the olingo, a raccoon-like omnivore that struts through the treetops and whose eyes have a particularly beguiling gleam. Make sure to look above you into the canopy with your flashlight and to listen for the swish of branches overhead. Sloths, too, may make an appearance, but a lot of the action is closer to the ground. Fuzzy tarantulas (your guide will remind you that the ones in Monteverde are not lethal), impressively camouflaged stick bugs, tiny scurrying mice and a host of other small critters line the trails. If you’re grossed out by cockroaches—even the most seasoned naturalist sometimes has that primal fear—know that you’ll probably see a few. But know, too, that even a roach looks otherworldly and beautiful in the misty rainforest at night.

What scare-fest wouldn’t be complete without bats? As with wolves, you may not be able to shake the feeling that you’re in danger, but these flying mammals are actually threatened by us: they’re at risk of extinction due to loss of habitat as well as disease.

Whether you want to help out the conservation effort or just can’t wait for your favorite vampire book to come to life, check out the Congress Avenue Bridge in Austin, Texas to see an especially large flock. The bridge is home to the largest urban bat colony in the world. And there’s now an observation center on the southeast corner of the bridge from which visitors can watch the Mexican free-tailed bats soar each night. The colony, which migrates each spring from central Mexico, consists mostly of females, who each give birth to a single pup in early June.

Of course, not everything that comes alive at night is part of the animal kingdom. Check out the Fort Worth Botanic Garden to see several night-blooming flowers, such as sambac jasmine, brugmansias and four o’clocks, scattered among the non-nocturnal plants. And to catch the cereus flower—famous because it blooms for just one night—travel to Tohono Chul in Tucson, Arizona, which prides itself on being home to the nation’s largest cereus collection. In summer, the buds of the plant begin to appear, then burst in a mass bloom on one night sometime between late May and late July. Because the momentary unfurling of the flowers is hard to predict, the garden sometimes announces the date as little as 12 hours before the buds bloom. Luckily, email updates (a sign up is available here) can help you keep track of when to head over. The petals usually begin to open at five p.m. and the bloom reaches its peak just three hours later that same evening.