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Skies
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Amboy, CA
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4 min
A sky with nothing in the way
No towns, no moon, and the Milky Way all the way down to the creosote.
Mile
1,120
Amboy has a few buildings, one road and almost no light. On a moonless night the Milky Way reaches all the way down to the creosote bushes.
Waiting for dark
We pulled off the old highway an hour after sunset and turned the engine and the headlights off. It takes about twenty minutes for your eyes to adjust. Then the sky fills in.
There were satellites, a meteor every few minutes and, near midnight, the faint glow of a city a hundred miles away.
Darkness is the rarest thing we saw on the whole trip.
Seeing more
Check the moon before you go. Bring a red light, a warm layer and patience.
Words and route by Wren Hollis
Joshua Tree, CA
8 min
The trees that keep time
Joshua trees grow about an inch a year. We sat with them until dark.
Kingman, AZ
11 min
The last windmill on the ranch road
A fourth-generation rancher, a pump that still turns, and very little rain.
Marble Canyon, AZ
5 min
Where the Colorado turns
Above a river that took six million years to cut its way here.
The Sunday Dispatch
Get the next stop on Sunday
One letter a week. Free, and easy to leave.