When the sun drops below the horizon, the desert changes character almost at once. Rock and sand that baked all day begin to shed their heat quickly into the dry, cloudless air, and by midnight the temperature can fall by thirty degrees or more. Creatures that hid from the glare now emerge: kangaroo rats scurry between burrows, scorpions hunt among the stones, and owls glide silently over the scrub. Without moisture to blur it, the sky becomes extraordinarily clear, and the stars seem close enough to touch.
Click to start typing