Full Moon Hike without The Moon

So last night (Wednesday), we joined Ranger Amy again (we're starting to feel like stalkers) at McDowell Mountain Park for a 3+ mile, full-moon hike (on Pemberton Trail). Except that there was no moon. It was very dark initally...spooky.

Needless to say, I didn't take a lot of pictures since everything was in shadow. About a dozen of us headed into the murkiness, looking and listening for nocturnal wildlife. All we could hear was the crunching under our feet, the voices of others, and the buzzing of airplane after airplane after airplane as each made its way to/from the Phoenix airport. The planes weren't necessarily near or low, but sound really carries in the desert, so it can be annoying if you're sensitive to that kind of engine humming (like yours truly; no one else noticed).

Is anybody home?

While the cloud cover blocked the moon, it also kept things warmer than usual (yay!) and refracted a surprising amount of light over Scottsdale as we headed west. We kept our flashlights off unless Ranger Amy was trying to highlight something. What I like about her is that even though she has to tell the same story over and over again to a new (and not so new) crowd, she always changes it up a little bit (and has new ones).

At exactly half way through the trek, the moon came out. Tada!

We had reached Pemberton Ranch (or P-Bar), a homestead built back in the early 1900s. During the day, you can wander around the property and find everything from pieces of delicate china to old coins (which you then would leave or bring to the visitor's center - you can not take it with you). The cattle grazing negatively impacted the environment by replacing the healthy, green grasses that had existed there with a hardier, invasive brown grass that has taken over and is the main source of fuel for the wildfires we get every year. The cattle would eat feed that had non-native seeds/grass in it and leave cow patties around the ranch infused with said seeds/grass, and then the bad stuff sprouted and took over.

There are still some ranches outside the park, and every once in awhile the cows get inside, so watch your step and look for cows in the road when you're driving (just like the islands!). There's still a pond here, fed by springs and by water brought in by the rangers. Why would they do this when the ranch is no longer active? Because there are thousands of little pupfish swimming in it. They are actually native to the desert, and apparently if we come during the day, we can see them.

Time to head back. Although we didn't see or hear anything, we could have seen the following:

Mule Deer

Javelina

Coyote

Mountain Lion

Fox

Toad

Tortoise

Bobcat

On our treks over the years, we've seen a bobcat, fox, and tortoise. The coyotes and javelina are everywhere, so we've seen plenty of them (a group of javelina went right under our balcony last week, and you hear coyotes howling/yapping many evenings). There are the occasional ocelots (one used to spray our house) and bears (rare) that come down from the higher mountains during droughts and/or wildfires. Of course there are also owls (and other raptors), quail, road runners, ground squirrels, kangaroo mice, pocket mice, snakes, tarantulas, and scorpions...

Amy does this full-moon hike every month. You never know what you'll see or hear, so it would be different every time. The trail is easy, there's no incline at all, but it did take 2 hours to finish the 3 miles, so know your stamina. There was a young child on this trek with boundless energy, so if you've got a small energizer bunny that wants to come, they're welcome.