[DeadJohn]

...at 3am if you are going to try to shoot, it's an additional mile hike from the parking lot outside the picnic area's gate.

Is bicycling an option? Park in a legal spot in an open lot or along a road, then bike to your photo destination.

[interested_observer]

Is bicycling an option? Park in a legal spot in an open lot or along a road, then bike to your photo destination.

Well, it could work to a degree - certainly from one parking lot to the other, then it's out onto the desert. There is a Y cattle gate that you need to go through, going from the park proper out to the open range. Also, you are looking for locations and interesting immediate foreground elements. Actually, hiking in is just as easy - given the search for the landscape element composition. The most frustrating part is that the picnic area parking lot is just so convenient - that you can almost shoot from the back of the vehicle. You just park and you have good foreground elements starting at about 200 feet (the gate).

They just close the picnic area at 10pm so that the college kids don't take it over for all night / weekend drinking parties.

Just substitute the clouds with the milky way. I'm gonna have to now hike at least another mile out, since they installed some really bright lights on the restrooms a couple of hundred feet away, which just kills this location for MW shooting. Also, off to the right is the little town of Apache Junction which just keeps growing, and the light pollution grows exponentially each year. I was out there a month ago, and it was just a large PIA to deal with. I've been futzing around with the images as I have had time and they are ok, but I really want better. So, in February, March and April - I'll be hoofing it farther out into the desert. But, I really like the gate as a foreground element.