Visiting so many of our National Parks this year we were inspired to look more at the possibility of spending some time as park volunteers. It seemed like a bit of a pipe dream but, we looked anyway and eventually landed on the Mojave Preserve (http://www.nps.gov/moja/index.htm). With some interesting twists of fate we were officially offered the position and start on January 20th, 2016. We plan to stay on until the end of April. With all this rain we might just be in the right place for an epic desert bloom in spring.

We’ll be spending most of our time at the remote campground and visitor center at Hole in the Wall. The preserve has only a few paved roads and a handful more dirt roads. While the lights of Vegas are as clear as day on the horizon the skies above are wide open. With this in mind we’ve ditched our kayaks and packed our new telescope.

Of course traveling around this year was a dream come true and we are so grateful that we took the risk and did it. Well, mostly a dream come true. Living on the road, especially covering the miles that we did, is not the same as a vacation. We thought we’d have more downtime that we think we’ll finally get over the next few months. We expect to be plenty busy on our working days but are very much looking forward to being in one place. Considering that the Mojave preserve is 1.6 million acres we’ll still have lots of exploring to do.

Thanks everyone for following along in 2015. Your words of support meant everything to us. Happy 2016!

Hole in the Wall