camping hiking One of the most enjoyable aspects about going camping hiking for a weekend is the night sky with a campfire blazing away. We don't plan our camping hiking trips around the moon, but it's always nice when the it's full or nearly there because it illuminates our campsite so nicely and watching it crawl through the sky is a fantastic experience. We can even hike later in the day when the moon is full or nearly so and we love listening to the night animal noises, too, far from our campsite. We especially love listening to the coyotes howl when night is falling, whether we're sitting around the campfire or on a trail.

We go camping hiking fairly often all year long and our favorite time to be out is during the harvest moon in September. We head to the mountains to enjoy it because it is so stunning. It looks huge and golden and it's like looking at the sun only at night. We try to choose a campsite that will give us a full view of the moon as it rises, minus any trees so we enjoy the moon's rise in the east. We even record it with our digital camera so we have memories of our camping hiking experience during this wonderful time of year to be out under the stars.