N Juniper Flats Road for sun set and moon rise

This hike was my first hosted hike up this road, after last weeks' recon. It was cool and breezy; great weather for an early evening hike. Tonight's hikers were NicoleM, DougM, HollyW, Jay and me. I took Zeke and Minnie along. Both wore reflective orange vests. There are two sets of radio towers on these hills that are visible from Sierra Vista 20 miles away. The road is well-graded and ideal for night walks. No deep crevices to worry about, or sudden drops in the road.




The first mile up the road is the steepest, with vehicular traffic coming and going to the residential area a mile up. But then the grade mellows and it becomes a very comfortable walk uphill as the vistas expand to the west. Nicole and I were up front while Jay, Doug and Holly were in the back. Nicole just finished a semester of long-term subbing at the same middle school I work at, but I had never spoken to her while at the school.

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We had some cloud cover early on that created beautiful sun set colors when the time came. It took us 45 minutes to reach the hillock just past the second radio tower, so we missed the sun crest behind the Huachuca mountains. The wind was blowing, too. One thing I did notice tonight were the four major areas of lights. Not only are Sierra Vista and Bisbee visibile from the hillock, so are Douglas/Agua Prieta (border town in Sonora) and Naco, AZ/Sonora. The waning light threw a grey mist over the various mountain ranges. I regretted not having taken my real camera. I was only armed with my Samsung S5 which only takes decent photos in daylight.

We all stood on the hillock admiring the views. HollyW, who had lived in Bisbee for 20 years, had never walked up to this hillock while living here, so to her this was new. Jay, who's normally reserved but filled with spontaneous sarcasm, kept calling the lights of Agua Prieta the lights of Mexico City. Agua Prieta is larger than its sister city across the border, Douglas, and I have never been in that town.

It was 7:30pm before we got down off the rocky hillock. I wanted to be back on the firm road before it got too dark. Moon rise was slated for 8:09pm and we would see the moon rise during our last mile on the road facing east. Again I was up front with Nicole, but then Jay joined us, delighted in the views. Cloud cover to the east was thickening, but we could see lone Mars tonight, high above the rising moon. We could see the moon's rays shine above the mountains before we saw the moon rise, and rise it did as a giant red ball. Wow! We were all amazed.