Beaver Supermoon over Maderas del Carmen: The Year's Penultimate Supermoon Rises Above the Sierra del Carmen
Updated: Oct 26
An invitation to welcome a brighter, larger full moon from the mountains of northern Mexico, and to close the autumn season in one of the most remote landscapes of the Chihuahuan Desert.
Every November, the last full moon of autumn rises over the Northern Hemisphere. In North American tradition it is known as the Beaver Moon, a name tied to the season when beavers finish building their dams and storing food before winter.
In 2026, this full moon is also a supermoon. It reaches its full phase on the morning of November 24, and it will rise full and bright on the evening of the 24th, a few days before Thanksgiving. It is the second of three supermoons this year, between January's Wolf Moon and December's Cold Moon.
What Is a Supermoon?
The Moon's orbit around Earth is not a perfect circle. When the full moon coincides with the point where the Moon is closest to our planet, it appears slightly larger and noticeably brighter than an ordinary full moon.
The difference is subtle in the middle of the sky. It becomes far more striking at moonrise, when the Moon appears low on the horizon, framed by mountains and ridgelines.
Maderas del Carmen: A Front-Row Seat
Few settings frame a moonrise like the mountains of Maderas del Carmen, Coahuila, Mexico.
Part of the transboundary Big Bend–El Carmen biological corridor, this conservation landscape spans elevations from approximately 4,000 to 9,000 feet above sea level. Far from major cities, its ridges and open horizons offer a clear view of the Moon as it emerges in the northeast near sunset.
On the evening of November 24, the rising Moon will appear close to two of the sky's best-known star clusters: the Pleiades, and the V-shaped Hyades with the orange star Aldebaran. As midnight approaches, Jupiter and Mars rise in the east, and Orion climbs in the southeast.
You do not need special equipment. The naked eye is enough to enjoy the moonrise and the silver light across the sierra. A pair of binoculars will reveal the Pleiades and the Moon's craters and contrasts in greater detail.
A Night Shaped by Moonlight
Under a bright full moon, the landscape itself becomes the spectacle. Canyons, oak and pine forests, and rocky slopes take on soft shapes and long shadows, and the sierra can be seen in a way that daylight never shows.
Moonlight also softens the fainter stars. On darker nights later in the lunar cycle, these same skies reveal the Milky Way in full, a reminder of how much the night changes from one week to the next.
Moonlight, Wildlife, and Conservation
Natural cycles of light and darkness guide the lives of countless species. Many animals adjust their activity, movement, and behavior to the phases of the Moon.
Protecting places where those cycles remain intact is part of protecting the wildlife that depends on them. In Maderas del Carmen, conservation means preserving not only forests, water, and species, but also the night itself.
This November, as the supermoon rises above Maderas del Carmen, we invite you to look up, slow down, and experience a landscape where the rhythms of nature still set the pace.
Plan your visit to Maderas del Carmen for the Beaver Supermoon.
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