Last night found us in another regional park Usery Mountain, a short distance north and east of Phoenix. Named after a local farmer turned criminal this park is well managed with extremely large private sites, trails and clean facilities. Our timing couldn't be better as we hit the full moon, a once per month event when the park holds their desert moon walk. But this wasn't just another full moon, because of the elliptical orbit of the moon to the Earth, this is the closest the moon comes to the Earth and hence, the brightest and largest in 2010. The Hungry Wolf Moon was widely publicized in the local news and brought out the largest crowd in the parks history, over 300. That's a lot of old folks walking in the desert at night in the dark! All went well and we had a wonderful time.
Tonight was a quite night with a campfire and some good star gazing before the moon rose again. While sitting at the camp fire, we were visited by a little Kangaroo Mouse. Tomorrow we will hike the nearby Pass Mountain Wind Cave trail, I'm sure we will have a breathtaking view of the park from atop the mountain.
The photo is not a black cardinal, it is a Phainopepla, uncommon but found in the arid scrub of the southwest.
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