hanging rock state park

we hit north carolina just after a visit to South of the Border...literally. our goal was to find a campsite with a place available to rest our tired, tired selves. driving up, up, up to Hanging Rock State Park we lucked out when the camp hosts took pity on our non-reservationish selves and granted us a place under the green canopy full of bird calls from mysterious chirpers.only somewhat robotic, we moved through our by now choreographed routine for setting up camp. then we plopped ourselves down for some book reading and dinner then bed in the slightly dampish humid tent. we are so not used to this thick moisture of the south. i suppose we won't cotton to it being from a place that blasts you in the face with a hot, dry heat every summer and especially since my asthma seems to turn up its nose to the wet. we slept pretty well and even took advantage of the kooky showers in the bathhouse the next morning. after putting the tent and bedding out to dry, we ventured off for a mini hike to some rumored waterfalls.the hike was a short one, less than a mile but it was ALL DOWN HILL...down, down, down we stepped until finally we heard water. eureka, we hit the falls! a little too late in the season to expect more than what we got but it was pretty and the air smelled sweet with warmth and green.we saw a sign for another waterfall not much further around the corner and thought we'd hit that as well. so down, down, down we went for another meet and greet with some water. we hunkered down for a short while as we contemplated the steep up, up, up back to camp. oy. it was a bruiser. it may have been short but man, was it steepity steep! i survived after a weepy moment darn my asthma and we made our way back to breakdown camp.

our next stop was Virginia and the Blue Ridge Highway...whoo-hoo!

last chance to win a pstyle!

if yer thinking you need one of these sweeties leave a comment and tell us about yer most ridiculous incident in which one would have really, really come in handy. there are some GREAT stories coming in and it is gong to be crazy hard to choose. i have four to give away so we'll pick the top eight and pull names form a hat. if you don't manage to get yerself one here, please visit krista's cups and order up a round, the price is really right at $12 a pop, you may find yerself buying them for all yer friends!

girlie camping with {p}style & a giveaway

have you heard of the pstyle? okay now, i didn't invent this at all but i am soooo glad someone did. mr. a-go-go and i camp out and hike enough that we find ourselves in many places that offer no facilities for those times when you gotta go-go.we all know that the menfolk have it easy and if yer not shy, we womanfolk can um...hunker down and do the deed when we have to but why hunker down? i kid you not. it is completely possible and ridiculously easy to go-go while standing with the aid of this magic device.

i know the name sounds kinda ridiculous. pstyle? really? it's not even shaped like a P but when you use it, you won't need to remove a stitch of clothing, i promise. i'm not a salesperson for the pstyle. i have no affiliation with krista's cups, i just really love being able to go-go when i need to with no spillage or mooning involved. i gifted the hikers in my life each with one (it comes in six colors) and all have found it to be most awesome. the mama a-go-go especially sings its praises along with me.a couple of months ago we were hiking and found that somehow we were without my beloved pstyle. i really had to go-go and there were no facilities to be seen. there were however a lot of people milling about and i am not the most graceful hunkerer. we did have a similar gadget hiding out in Rodney so i grabbed that and lumbered off into the field as far as i could go. it was a disaster. i'll spare you the details but it has been decided that i need to own another pstyle to keep in the car as sometimes the adventure bag (more on that later) is not along for the ride.so far, we have camped in five states and gone on numerous hikes. and sice we're really good at keeping hydrated my handy dandy pstyle has seen a lot of action. a lot. and each time i use it, i am delighted that it exists, de-light-ed. i've used it on hikes, on walks, in icky gross porta-whatchits and in the middle of the night after crawling out of our day-glo tent. it is handy and simple and easy to clean and i keep it in its very own carry-all...a silicone pencil bag i picked up at target for two smackeroos.so here is my question to you. do you need a pstyle? if you hike or love outdoor concerts or the ren-faire or the beach it would seriously come in handy. and since i am just about married to mine i contacted the awesome krista of krista's cups and now i have a handful for giveaway. if you think yer a pstyle kinda gal, leave a comment here and share with me yer almost most dismal story in which you could have used a pstyle. i'll give y'all a week to comment then we'll select a winner or two...

seriously, it rocks...though, if you choose to wrestle it out in the middle of a wind storm in the desert don't fault me...just saying.

**oh and i've used something VERY similar to the FUD and it was a disaster for me...um, there was overflow...not fun, i have never had overflow the with the style. as long as you get the placement right yer good. just practice at home a few times sans skivvies, etc and then work yer way up. i totally used mine in the middle of a poppy field with nothing to hide behind and from a distance you couldn't even tell what i was doing unless of course you were a seasoned styler. :)

el cosmico a-go-go

el cosmico just may be our new favorite place. okay, maybe not mr. a-go-go's but i don't know. he is currently swaying in the breeze, napping away on an orange stripey hammock footsteps away from our tent. i think it's safe to say he likes it.we arrived at el cosmico around 2pm after driving way way way past its road and having to backtrack about nine miles or so. it's in the middle of the desert and so the temps are warm, if not hot, dry and windy. if you're wondering what in the world i'm writing about, el cosmico is a tiny speck in a tiny town for you to rest yer weary head. from tent sites to yurts to vintage trailers there is a lot to choose from at all price ranges. for twenty smackeroos a night, mr. a-go-go and i have a tent in the shade (if yer the only tent camper you get shade, otherwise you are left out in the open, like a first come, first served dealio), access to a clean outdoor bathroom with showers and tub even, views of trees, teepees, yurts and trailers, use of an outdoor kitchen, free wifi and the company of the el cosmico cat. take that super 8 and yer stinky, mildewy air conditioned, forty-five dollar rooms! once we pitched our tent, mr. a-go-go and i headed out to the outdoor kitchen to add some eats to the fridge and scarf down a peanut butter and (pilfered) jelly sandwich before it dried to cracker consistency. i have decided that i want an outdoor kitchen complete with old metal drum tables, oilcloth decor, wasps nests and wooden stools. the view was nice as the cool breeze tickled the hair on our necks. swifts flew by and hovered like helicopters into the weedy green leaves of the wildflowers that were planted about. off in the distance you can see the white fabric of the yurts billowing in the wind and the tiny specks of new arrivals as they wheel their camp goods to their accommodations in heavy yellow meshed wagons.it's a pretty large chunk of property, kinda like a fairground but not THAT large. no cars are allowed on the grounds so you haul in your goods by way of bright yellow wagons. the yurts are the first accommodations you see (in house-wise), sprouting up all weed-like in a cluster just past the funky open air bathroom. they are of a pretty good size and i hear they have nicely made up beds and bits of pretty inside, i can't say it for sure as i never got to peek inside one as a good number of our fellow el cos-amigos were camping out in them.if there are campers, like we a-go-gos, you would actually arrive at our crayon colored tents before the yurts and trailers as the campsites spring up first along the windy dirt path that weaves around the property. el cosmico only just opened in november 2009 and so i won't judge them too harshly for their lack of trees at the designated campsites of which there appeared to be five or so. seriously, no shade. we popped our tent up off the beaten path under a sparse apple green tree and right next to a happy hammock. sarah, our guide gave us permission so we followed suit after the other lone tent that we saw snuggled up to a hammock across the path from us.up the path from camp and to the right were the trailers. if this were a trailer contest, el cosmico would come in a fair second to the shady dell. though, i have to admit, the extra outdoor showers that were porched in front of a select few trailers may tip it into a tie. very convenient. just past the trailers and a little further left at the end of the path that becomes all pretty paired up with flowering plant after flowering native plant you arrive at the outdoor kitchen that contains an oilcloth covered table. a series of stools to perch upon, fridge, sink and hot plate. there is also an old school bar-b-que out back that some of our el cos-amigos were putting to use when we arrived to cook up a curry dinner. el cosmico is pretty nifty though we a-go-gos don't think we'd want to be there on the weekend. not a bad thing, we're just not the beer guzzling type and like to noodle about camp with our ukes and books and hammock napping. we're early risers and our fellow amigos seemed to be late-to-bedders so if yer looking for some midnight bonding with assorted hipsters, the weekend may be a good bet. the place also offers free wifi in its considerably cooler-than-outside (as in temperature) lounge. the lounge closes at 7pm (and has a resident cat) but if you've a good battery on yer laptop you can park it at the outdoor tables under the happy strings of red, red lights.the bathroom at el cosmico is pretty cool too but not for everyone. there is an illusion of privacy that is pretty good as i think since yer all in the same boat everyone attempts to honor it but if yer not comfortable squatting next to a stranger with a series of wooden boards between ya, this may not be the place for you. but it is much more modern than the average questionable pit toilets you encounter at most other campsites. the toilets at el cosmico are clean and flushable. and there is something about taking a shower out in the breeze (don't worry, you're not OUT out there) that makes ya feel free.after two days, we were settling in for a longer stay but the weekend was upon us and we had to get our tails to austin to visit with some awesome flickr friends and you know, hunker down for the Lost series finale. if you plan a visit to el cosmico, make sure to wander the tiny artsy town of marfa, they have some good eats at the pizza foundation, lots of public art and things to photograph and if you get too hot, there's a DQ to hit and sugar up at.after our stay we woke up with the birdies and drove eight straight hours through tiny towns and pretty scenery to austin, texas where we got our flickr on!

thank goodness for birds

stinkbutt or no stinkbutt we still had to set up camp and make ourselves at home for the next two days. the tent was set up and mr. a-go-go went to crop circling a trench around the tent to keep it from getting flooded if the rain continued because of course we would have rain after already experiencing freezing temps and torrid winds. so mr. a-go-go got out his handy dandy folding shovel while i pulled out the camera to document it all.

aside from setting up the tent and making the bed, we need to plan for meals and make sure we have something to do after all the set up is done. reading, sewing and sudoku are done by the light of our headlamps. if it is too cold or windy we hide out in Rodney until it’s late enough to declare a justifiable bed time. mostly we just noodle along and explore the landscape that surrounds us. at camp stinkbutt though, there wasn’t much to explore save for a dash past the stink to the reserved campsites that were creekside. the water was pretty and gurgling away or maybe it was babbling, i’m not sure. there were all sorts of birds just like mr. a-go-go said. so we sat and watched and enjoyed the view.

as crowded and stinky and cold as the campsite was it wasn’t all that bad. the saving grace of the whole place was the birds. all kinds of birds! from the get go there were the birds. robins scurried about the campsite in search of critters and crumbs. woodpeckers, peck, peck, pecked away at the lanky ponderosas that surrounded us and unidentifiable birds in grey and brown peeped peeped under foot, car and camp bench. the niftiest of nifty however were the hummingbirds. camp stinkbutt was void of anything flowering but still i heard the cartoonish motor motor of hummingbirds whizzing by. i couldn’t figure out where they were coming from or why as not a speck of color was in sight save for the eye popping yellow of our tent and the happy pink & orange picnic throw i had tossed over my faded camp chair. all night the first night i would hear what sounded like hummingbirds hum around us, it wasn’t until morning when one wee fellow flew fast and furious into the yellow cereal bag we had floating about our camp deftly jabbing at it hoping for something sweet to snack on. ah-ha! i knew there were hummingbirds.

the mystery of the hummingbirds was solved when i wandered away to find a less stinkified bathroom to take care of business in. i thought for certain that the pit toilets near the camp host would be clean and so i headed that way. as i walked i began to hear more motor motor motor and the closer i got to the camp host, the louder the humming buzz biz got. there before me, outside the RV of the host was a small thatch of birdie paradise. feeder after hummingbird feeder peppered the area and boy howdy were there birds! some of the feeders had five or more wee nectar lovers perched upon them and they didn't fly away when i appeared. i didn't have my camera with me and it wouldn't have mattered if i did, i don't think i could have adequately captured this lovey yet surreal moment. so yeah, it may have been a stinky two days but the birds provided a lovely soundtrack.

scenes from camp a-go-go

a long walk on the rim and, “what’s that stink?”

5/12 Williams, The Grand Canyon, and stink butt camp




The morning was indeed frigid and the warm bed kept us from the road north to the Grand Canyon until 7 am. We didn’t see the sunrise over the big river in it’s deep red cradle but we were early enough to have the Rim trail mostly to ourselves for the morning. What can I say about the big great cleft that would be new? This was mrs. a-go-go’s first visit so I’ll let her photos make their excited disbelieving overwhelming describing.






Later we took the park shuttle to the end of the line at Hermit’s Rest and walked more of the Rim Trail back toward the main park village. By this time, after lunch, the crowds were upon us. Nothing like the summer rush I’m sure, but still a bit trying. People get pushy, and impatient. It’s a really special place so I understand so many coming to see it but it makes me worry about how many of us hairless house apes there are. On the plus side, we listened to German, Korean, Portuguese, Hindi, Italian, French, Japanese, and a mess of languages and accents we could never recognize. Jeepers, the world comes here…and almost gets along without arguments and tension.

By 1pm we were walked out. Back to our hot car on an hour-long shuttle ride, and we were on our way to Flagstaff and Oak Creek Canyon north of Sedona, AZ. The weather south of the canyon was a little daunting with short flurries of big raindrops and sheets of distant rain hanging from big white anvils. Flagstaff briefly confused our directions and we had a quick glimpse of the old town where we’ll have to visit on another trip. I had hoped to score a campsite at a tent-only campground north of Sedona. Rodney did his best to grip the road on the twisting Oak Creek Canyon Road as we scanned the brown signs for Manzanita Campground. Full!? Really!? On a Wednesday afternoon? Well, the camp-out season starts early in the red rocks of Sedona. So we backtracked to another campground that is heavily used (and I mean USED) and frequented by lots of RVs. I won’t mention the camp’s real name, but we call it stink butt. We took a site for two nights in spite of the stinky pit toilets that waft the valley with a grey brown smell and the badly abused surroundings. We needed a place to stay so we could do some hiking in the area and stink butt would have to do. The local inns were way out of our budget so we sucked it up and decided to accept what was available. Chiggers can’t be boozers, and our day peering into and across the Grand Canyon left us needing dinner and a dry tent. Yes, a few more spatterings of rain fell, but we were dry for the night; dry but with wrinkled stink-noses and the headlights and “mon-back” calls of the late arriving RVs until midnight stilled everything but the hum of the pit toilets’ stink-vent fans.

feeling weepy

So we’re on our way. Our first night out in Joshua Tree National Park at Jumbo Rock looks like it will be windy and chilly. No sweat, we’ve been through wind chill and a thrashing tent before. Our last visit to Joshua Tree two years ago the wind was so wild it seemed like someone was throwing sand at the tent all night and we drove through sideways mud rain to enter the park. Sleeping with the wind tonight will be a challenge but it’s not what I am thinking about as I type on a lap top as the sky gets dark and the battery monitor ticks down. Instead I am considering my suddenly getting all choked up as we locked up and prepared to leave the friends’ house where we had been visiting for the weekend.

We were the last out in the morning. Everyone else had left early for school and or jobs. We took some time to get Rodney all packed up but when it came time to step out the door I found myself getting all weepy. It took some time to get out of Glendale as we had several things that had to be done before hitting the road east: post office, Michael’s for some craft supplies, Trader Joe’s for vittles…. and so on. My water works switched on again a couple of times as we made our way through the errands. Good grief, who knew that finally getting on the road would make me cough up a mess of emotional stuff that I have been fighting for a while. I’ll miss the kids we were visiting. I’m usually called the Uncle-by-choice there, and I changed a whole lot of their diapers. I have been visiting with them regularly, weekly, for so long, but that will be on hold for a long while. I’ll miss the visits, the kids, and their parents. The loss of that regular interaction struck me first, but it was just the beginning. Then I had to think about how much I have missed of my nephew, and how much mrs. a-go-go has missed of her niece and nephew. That thought led to the apparent impossibility of mrs. a-go-go and I having kids (yes, yes, we can adopt. Hold your breath. It’ll be a long while before we are in any position to do that.) That emotional mess led to thoughts about losing my dad four years ago and then to the forever irksome reality that there are so many things I can do so little about: the present worrisome health problems of loved ones, the impossibility of doing all things for others that I wish I could, and the lack of time I have to do the things I need for my own peace of mind.

Oh well, I guess that is partly what this trip is about. Going out into the world so I can come back and appreciate all the things I miss while away…. Then of course there is the need to do this trip just because. Just because we have talked about it so long, just because there have been too many sad things in that last several years. Hopefully I can spend more time seeing the good and wonderful things from the last several years that are here and appreciate them all the more…

OK gonna get weepy again if I don’t cut this out. I really hope that all the good folks who have supported us on this mission know how much we appreciate it and how much we miss them while we are away.

So, what happened on the way to Joshua Tree other than getting red puffy eyes? A brief recap: By noon we were at last headed east out of Los Angeles, a typical hazy spring afternoon in the valley of the smokes. After passing through the gate (of horn or ivory?) of San Gorgonio and San Jacinto we made the obligatory stop for the Cabazon dinosaurs.

There we made a spectacle of our selves in big floppy masks. Then while climbing the Morongo Valley, we drove into a swarm of bees.

It was like a sudden heavy rain and the noise and moving mass striking the car made us jump out of our seats. Just over the hill we mourned the dead bees that had lost the head butt with Rodney, and we cleaned the windshield at a 7-11. A quick stop at the new East Entrance Visitor Center and a nice chat with ranger Mimi, and we were on our way with a new annual pass for the National Parks. And here we are, sight 27, Jumbo Rock campground. It’s dark now. Gotta hunker down in the tent, hope we can out last the wind, and think about all the good stuff we’ll return to after our odyssey.

cows on the beach, Valley of Fire, part four

Our nap was delightful but the heat of the day was still on us. More hiking was out of the question so we thought finding the edge of Lake Mead and taking a dip might be worth a try. On a map the lake is just a couple of miles West of the park so we were on our way. We stumbled into some messy road work and ended up driving on gravel whoop-dee-dos for a bit. Following the map took us to Overton Beach. Hmm... no beach. There is a boat launch there that is now at least ten miles from the edge of Lake Mead. Drought indeed. Water still filters down from Moapa Valley to the north and there is active agriculture in the area but no lake. The recent lake bed was green with grass and cows munching their cud stared us down.

We continued on to the town of Overton for a cold soda and lingered for pictures of freight train cars on a siding and a big red rooster on the roof of a biker bar. That used up enough of the hot day that we returned to the park. Our last stop on the way back to camp was the cabins, a collection of small stone and adobe lodgings. A didactic sign explained that they had been built as part of an overnight rest stop along a stage coach route. Small with ceilings blackened by soot they were almost cozy. If we had not been joined by some cell phone hosts I could have finished my John Ford moment. Sitting in the dark interior looking out at the painfully bright red landscape and blue sky I very nearly saw Ethan Edwards pause, standing on the threshold weighing... stay or go?Back in camp we spent the evening reading, playing ukes, and listening to the echo of Say's Phoebe saying, "fee bee?"

Up early again on our last day, we packed our junk and went out for one more sun rise and one more chance to catch the clouds.

winding road, Valley of Fire, part three

The road to the old film set is a dead end so we retraced our steps. By now the other apes were up and about and we wouldn't be so likely to have the place to ourselves. A site we had passed on our way in was Mouse's Tank. We had invested the dawn light and cool temperatures in our poking around other locations. The short hike to Mouse's Tank passes more petroglyphs on the canyon walls and seeing no one in the small parking area yet we decided to make the walk. The goal of the hike is a small natural water catchment in the rocks that had been named for a man named Mouse. He used the water collected there to survive in this desert in the 1890s.The sandy path had seen quite a bit of traffic from the previous evening's twilight until our arrival. The crossing tracks of chuckwallas, lizards, beetles, kangaroo rats, and snakes were not yet buried under sneaker prints. A few less timid lizards stayed near the path challenging each other with vigorous pushups. We were treated to a cloud show overhead and it was a nice hike, but the goal at the end was nothing to get excited about. Unless you are dying of dehydration, then Mouse's Tank would be heaven. There had been little fresh water running into the tank for some time. There were thunder showers the day before but none of that water made it to the ground or into Mouse's prize. The water was muddled with brownish algae, and every bee and wasp in a forty mile radius knew about this one bit of moisture. They lined the sandy edges and slurped up what they could to carry off to their brood. We heard their buzz before we saw the tank. The heat of the day was really on us by then and we needed a bathroom break. Fortunately the visitor center was near the junction of the film set road and the main park road. After taking advantage of the restrooms we lingered in the cool air of the natural history displays. There were some fine didactic illustrations of the geologic origin of the valley's colorful rocks and some taxidermy critters in diorama displays. All fairly typical and mildly interesting but we began to notice a few things were askew. Above a terrarium case containing some live examples of the local desert fauna we spied a decorated ceramic plate hanging on the wall. It had a color image of a calico cat in the glaze and was inscribed, "Mouse, the cat." More local fauna? Squinting at the label on the wall clarified that Mouse had been the visitor center cat for several years but the previously mentioned "tank" was not his. Looking further we found that the visitor center had an extensive gallery of artworks with the valley as their subject. All seemed to have been sent by previous visitors to the park. Then I spotted one of my favorite things, a miniature diorama depicting what was intended to be a typical day in the lives of the precolonization natives. It was sooooo cool. Tiny figures engaged in a mad flurry of activity all at once. Someone had imagined exciting things for all the tiny figures to do: two children caught in the act of shoving a third into a creosote bush, an elderly man squatting to poke a cooking fire, a hunter chasing a jack rabbit, and a woman waving her finger giving her partner a scolding... all at once! Gee, these people led very active lives.


The cool air in the visitor center was hard to part with but we had not found a place to nap off our early morning adventure. Remembering the wind worn crevices and holes we had seen the day before in the rocks near camp, we set out to find shade. A short search turned up a fine hole in the wall facing south. The rock was cool and smooth enough for us to have lunch and nap while hiding from the heat of the afternoon.

flint and tinder at dawn, Valley of Fire, part two

Up with the ping-a-ling of my watch alarm, we scrambled into the car to drive a short bit to the center of the main valley. The stars had just faded, and we ate a breakfast snack waiting for the orange light. The new landscape is hard to catch and the photos that mrs. a-go-go took the next morning are better. Once the dawn was cooking we moved on to Fire Canyon after driving a side road that was originally laid to reach a film set location. Fire Canyon, Rainbow Canyon, and White Dome along this road all have contrasting layers and humps of red, orange, and white stone. We had the road to our selves well into the morning. Before we saw another car we had hiked through a small slot canyon, had a full breakfast, visited the ruins of the film set, taunted some chipmunks, and were ready for a nap.


All before 10 a.m.

red hot rock, Valley of Fire, part one

In May 2009 we made a two night outing to Valley of Fire State Park in Nevada a startling landscape Northwest of Las Vegas. We do like our desert camp outs and you may have noticed that we have been visiting lots of dry places. Well, that is at least in part due to Los Angeles being surrounded by desert and most one or two days trips won’t take us anywhere but desert.

This was mrs. a-go-go’s first visit to the valley but I had traveled there years ago with my sister on a Southwest US ramble road trip. My sister and I were headed for Zion so we only stayed overnight in Valley of Fire. The dazzling colors of the dawn light on the rocks set the place in my mind and I knew I would be back some day. The valley did not disappoint on my return trip and mrs. a-go-go was delighted too.

The drive was not very impressive as we were on interstate 15 most of the way. The tiny town of Yermo had some excellent abandoned buildings and fence posts on the outskirts, but we had to wince our way through Las Vegas too. At last we turned south off the 15 and sprinted toward the Muddy Mountains (no kiddin’, that’s the name) on the valley road. Thunder heads were gathering and we had a light show over the distant mountains. The storm lingered but we didn’t see more than a few drops and some high humidity. The lightning stayed in the distance and rumbled and rolled on the horizon. The park road winds up to a pass and then rapidly descends into the wild red stone canyons. We found a walk-in-tent-only camp site and pitched our bundle.

It was late afternoon by the time we were set up and the rain clouds made the day hot and muggy. We ventured out to see petroglyphs for which the camp ground was named. Valley of Fire has several petroglyph sites but Atlatl Rock is the closest to the main road and requires the shortest walk. This has made it victim of some vandalism but the collection of old drawings is still impressive. The symbolism of most of the images can only be guessed at but there are human figures, big horn sheep and antelope, and what is presumed to be an atlatl, a marvelous tool that allowed a hunter to throw a short spear with great accuracy and force. At the time the petroglyphs were chipped into the stone reaching their cleft required a more difficult climb. More recently, hairless house apes came and cut stairs into the stone. This is likely when peoples' names in roman script were faintly scratched over some of the petroglyphs. Then more apes came and installed a steel staircase and viewing platform that stands some distance from the wall of the cleft and has a steel mesh and plexiglass barrier. This made the climb very easy and I suppose it helps discourage all but the very best vandals. Still very worth a visit, but I can't help shaking my head. The other petroglyph sites we visited in the park have had less trouble, and they are only visible from below. Binoculars help, and many are quite clear and large enough to to see with out aid or the need to climb the cliffs.

We returned to camp to cook up dinner and watch the bats wheel and turn in the humid dusk. The dense sticky air made me want to sleep nekid but I settled for boxer-briefs. We passed out early planning to be up before dawn the next day. Sunrise is a thing not to miss in Valley of Fire.