“Did you know it’s just an illusion that the Moon is larger next to the horizon?” Lila asks while we are walking towards that bright and full June Moon which seems to be stationary over the Roxborough State Park Fountain Valley Trail. “No, I didn’t” I respond. “It‘s called Moon illusion, it is only a psychological effect due to how information is processed in our brains,” she explains.

We stop for a moment and admire Luna, huge and bright in the sky. This one is also called Flower, Rose or Strawberry Moon, depending on whom you ask. Several people stop to take a photograph. Peter, Lila’s husband, tells us about several theories that were popular at different times in history about how the Moon was formed and that the impact theory is now widely accepted. It states that an object the size of Mars hit Earth when the solar system formed and jettisoned a large piece of Earth’s mantle into orbit, forming the Moon.

Peter Laux is a geologist and Volunteer Naturalist at Roxborough State Park. I had met both Peter and Lila on a previous geology hike at the park several months ago. This moonlight walk is guided by Volunteer Naturalist Carl Sandberg. Carl knows every wildflower along the path and tells us how they were used by the Indians. Many have healing properties, others are very poisonous. Patiently he answers all our questions and also shares his remarkable knowledge of Roxborough State Park history and geology with us. We are a group of about 15 nature lovers participating in tonight’s hike and there are other groups hiking to different Park destinations.

The moonlight is bright enough to see the trail and we notice bats flying on an erratic course through the night catching insects. The rocks echo distant sounds, we stop and listen. Is it an owl; are there bellowing elk far away, what are the mysterious noises? Right next to the trail we hear an occasional rustling in the bushes. This trail is familiar to me; I have walked it several times before during daylight hours. I find it magical how the moonlight is transforming the landscape, it lets the rocks appear much larger and form ghostly silhouettes, some resembling faces looking at the stars.

Carl, our group leader, makes us aware of how much our sense of hearing increases in the darkness. Earlier on our walk he had told us a story about his encounter with a mountain lion, which was chasing an elk herd and suddenly jumped out of the bushes and between the members of his group, snorting and spitting. Even though several people had cameras, no one moved to take a picture. The mountain lion was closer than 20 feet and then decided to continue his chase after the elk.

I start wondering how many eyes are watching us.

We are on the return leg of the walk and Carl tells us that we might have the opportunity to watch Saturn and Moon through telescopes back at the Visitor Center. When we arrive, Volunteer Naturalists have already set up the telescopes for us to admire Saturn’s rings and the surface of the Moon. A table is set up with delicious refreshments, all courtesy of the Friends of Roxborough, whose donations make all this possible.

One of the other groups had encountered a bear. I guess there will always be surprises on these moonlight hikes.

For everybody interested in past, present and future Moon phases, here is a link to find out

Find out more about the moon illusion

Angelika Koehne

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