Time to shoot the moon

After several weeks recovering from the Quartzsite Crud and being whipped by the wind I made plans to shoot the moon back at the Cargo Muchacho Mountains.

I am grateful to Yuma friends who let me park for a quiet night in their driveway.  Sure beats the noise of traffic, trains, and planes at the VFW-BLM camp north of town.  I pretty much slept away the day.  Did post a video taken in Silly Al’s Pizza from the visit with Sue and Mo in Quartzsite.

Back to the Cargo Muchacho Mountains BLM camp and parked in the same tireprints only because somebody was in the place I really wanted.  They left late in the afternoon but it was too windy chill to walk over and check for signal strength.  Because I had signal where I was, I uploaded a fast time-lapse of the traffic at Roadrunner camp near Quartzsite.

Even though it wasn’t yet full I was hoping to shoot the moon.  Low clouds hid the moon until sunset.

The next day I discovered a good signal at the desired campsite so moved about an 1/8th of mile deeper into the canyon.  Put me insight of vegetation near a dry wash and I could hear birds chirping.  Temperature reached 76° so I was able to sit outside and soak in the warmth.

Watched the sun set and was able to shoot the moon.

The next day was equally warm so I got more time outside.  The full moon rise occurred after dark making it difficult to shoot the moon without setting up the tripod which I was too lazy to do.

But the next morning I was up early enough to shoot the moon setting.  Had some fun adding the Ocotillo to some of those shots.  That night I heard coyotes howl followed by the braying of burros.

So I decided to set up the trail-cam the next day.  Afternoon wind kept me inside.  Good day for napping.

Oops, dirty window

Several more days of high wind kept me inside.  Although I was feeling much better my voice still wasn’t back to normal so I didn’t want to push my luck.  I had to go outside once to get a full water bottle from the passenger side floor of the truck and that damn wind whisked two empty bottles out and sent them south to Mexico.  I managed to finish and download a video from my first walk into the Cargo Muchacho Mountains from just before Christmas.

I’ve spent a lot of this winter in the Yuma, Arizona area because it’s the warmest place to be even with the wind, however, I hope to shoot the moon in March over the Kofa Mountains.  But not before making a trip across the border to Los Algodones, Mexico for new eyeglasses.