Milky Way at Organ Pipe Cactus #1

I had originally planned to do some Milky Way photography from the bottom of the Grand Canyon, as part of a backpacking trip, but some foot problems ended up causing me to give up on that idea. The weather in northern Arizona was not cooperating anyway, with the forecast being for cloudy skies for the foreseeable future, so I did some searching for a nice dark sky site in southern Arizona. I happened across Natural Bridges National Monument, which was way down in southern Arizona, just a few miles from the Mexican border. That park had been on my bucket list anyway, and the weather was supposed to be clear both day and night, for the next week at least. I made a reservation for the campground down there, and early the following morning I packed up the car and headed south.

I arrived at the park around 11am and made a short stop at the visitor center before heading to the campground. I was a little concerned about going out late at night, by myself, being only a few miles from the Mexican border, but the rangers said they had not been having any problems lately. That was good news, but my concerns continued when I went to the campground to set up camp and I was the only person there. It was still only late morning, and I hoped that some others would arrive before the end of the day.

After setting up camp I went for a drive down the park road to scout out shooting locations. I found a nice spot, at the top of a ridge, just before the two-way road turned into a one-way road. There were some nice cacti there and the location seemed perfect for including them with the Milky Way behind. My only concern was a sign at the location where the road became one-way that read: "TRAVEL CAUTION - Smuggling and illegal immigration may be encountered in this area - Do not travel alone - Avoid encounters with suspicious groups - Avoid traveling at night - Dial 911 to report illegal activity". Hmmm. The road beyond the sign required a high clearance vehicle and I did not want to attempt that in my Prius anyway, so I hoped this location would be reasonably safe. I assumed that anyone involved in smuggling or illegal immigration would be as interested to avoid me as I was to avoid them.

After lunch I scouted out another section of the park, which was even more remote, and did not find any locations that I thought would be better. Back at camp I was happy to see that a few other campers had shown up to share the campground with me. Having others around definitely added to the comfort level. I waited out the rest of the afternoon, had myself some dinner, and waited for dark before heading into the tent to get some sleep. The early evening was gorgeous, and I had a very nice time reading my eBook and watching the stars take over the darkening, evening sky.

I got up at 1:30am and drove back to my planned shooting location. I was amazed at how dark it was out there when I parked the car and turned off the lights. There was a little sky glow to the south from a few small towns, that were just across the border in Mexico, but I did not think that would present too much of a problem. The one problem I did have was that everything looked very different at night, and finding the location that I had planned to shoot from was a bit of a challenge. I cannot be exactly sure that I did find the same location, but I found a couple that had to be very close and worked out well.

I was able to start shooting around 2:15am and continued until around 3:30am. Around that time I saw a light off in the distance, in the direction that one-way road was heading, and after watching it for a while it appeared to be heading in my direction. It was only one light and did not appear to be a vehicle but rather someone walking across the desert. I had a headlamp on myself from time to time but mine was using a red light to not mess with my night vision and I assumed anyone out there would be able to see it. I already had what I hoped was a nice set of images so rather than take any chances I decided to pack it in and head back to the campground.