>>1541024This is how we usually put down out there. I was with a couple of friends in the lava fields in the western part of the Mojave National Preserve, up this old mining road.
For most of the year, you can easily get away with just sleeping in the open next to the campfire, and in fact I would say that it's preferable in summer. Even at night, it's too warm for a tent, and for that matter too warm for most sleeping bags. I usually just use any one of a number of surplus wool blankets, but in this particular instance we came in spring. I had the green patrol bag and bivvy from a surplus modular sleep system, along with a poncho liner to serve as an extra layer in case it got chilly, which it did.
The only time I wouldn't recommend this is in winter. It rains pretty heavily, and it even snows on occasion at higher elevations.
