My visit to Big Bend is coming up and I'm seeing that the temperature is very high for hiking during the afternoon. We'll give some of the shorter hikes (less than a couple of hours) a try during those hours, but for the Rim hikes and anything longer, we're thinking of starting in the late afternoon and ending in the evening. We'll still bring appropriate amounts of water and flashlight gear.

Are evening hikes that end around 9pm (sunset times) encouraged or a bad idea? The alternative would be starting around 5-6am and trying to finish before early or mid afternoon, although we're targeting sky parties and trying to get some sleep.