Full Moon In The Desert

916 March 4-5, 2023 Full Moon In The Desert

I started with a nice long walk through the desert, to the circle in town and then uphill back to the campground.

We packed the Jeep with coolers and our overnight stuff and drove to Fish Creek Wash. From there, we chose Lycium Wash.

We drove to the end and got out to explore.

This narrow passage had large boulders and looked to be a difficult hike.

We got back to the Jeep and found a campsite.

As I was rolling a rock out of the way, I found 2 inch scorpion underneath. I tried to take a picture but I just wasn’t quick enough. Tim stomped on it. We were camping and it didn’t feel too safe to sleep with a living scorpion. Even so, he wasn’t sure if he killed it. We decided to move our camping spot another few feet.

Tim turned over another rock and found this speedy centipede.

We had been gathering firewood each time we camped out but here there wasn’t much to be found. We had a few pieces and we were looking for some deadwood near our campsite. I had my hands full when the ranger arrived. She was very nice but she scolded us and asked us to put the wood we collected back where we got it! She also took exception to our campsite saying that we had driven offroad. She let us stay though.

The sun set on our site at about 4pm because of the surrounding mud hills. The wind picked up and it was hard to keep the flame going on the cookstove. We were able to move everything and use the Jeep as our wind block…and omelets were served.

The sky turned pretty; pastel.

The moon was almost full and brilliant. It cast long shadows on the coarse, white sand. The wind settled and we enjoyed the fire, watching the wood burn.

I was awake first this morning and I had fun starting the morning fire and making the coffee. It was cold and the fire felt good! These are usually Tim’s jobs. I earned my merit badge today!

The sun was more of a promise than a presence.

We took our time packing gear.

We drove to Oyster Wash. We had thought we might camp here last night but it was a good decision to go out to Lycium Wash because there were lots of other campers here.

We stopped for breakfast and walked around a little.