These little butterflies are everywhere lately, trying to find our few wildflowers, doing their best to further the pollination in this very dry spring. I didn’t realize I’d caught the butterfly with Juniper until I saw the image on my computer later. 🙂 Both bright spots of goodness!
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Speaking of bright spots, we got a nice drizzle of rain yesterday! I’d love to have more (you know I always want *more rain*!), but at least this bit of moisture will help our grasses and other vegetation, not to mention those water catchments.
By the time I got up on the ridge and had taken my time visiting with and photographing Hollywood, Sundance’s were dropping off the ridge and Storm’s band was about to. So I didn’t get a lot of pix of them, but that was OK. Above is Storm with Gaia and Mysterium before they headed down. I wish I’d gotten a better composition with that balanced rock behind them!
It’s not nearly as steep over the edge behind them as it looks. I moseyed over there as they were heading down, but I didn’t follow them as it was getting late and I had a long walk back.
Quietly waiting and watching Storm’s and Sundance’s bands heading off the ridge. He’d been watching them to his left. … I caught this pic as he turned to look directly at me.
Still a bit lean, still shedding some tufts of his winter coat. Always handsome.
“The ‘hedgehogs’ are blooming!” a basin visitor announced the other day, and although that’s not what I call these gorgeous cacti, I knew exactly what he was talking about.
The buds were tightly furled one day, and the next day, they’re open and ready for their buzzing visitors!
Another sure sign of spring in our desert country. 🙂
You can’t tell by this photo of Buckeye and his mares napping, but the wind was *blasting*. It was a little better close to the ground, but it was *ferocious*. Peace is in the perception, eh? (Bia was just out of frame to the left; at one point, they were ALL lying down.)
Did I mention that it was REALLY windy that day, up on that ridge? I may have forgotten that part; here, wind in the spring is such a usual occurrence, it’s as normal and regular as sunshine.
By the time I moved away from Hollywood and closer to Sundance’s and Storm’s bands, Sundance’s were on their way down another little finger ridge. But when he stopped to pose as only Sundance can (!), the wind had its artful way with his mane and tail!
(From 8 this morning until midnight, pretty much all of western Colorado is under a high wind warning. I’m predicting NON-pretty dusty air by the end of the day.)
From that amazing ridge in far southeastern Spring Creek Basin, Hollywood’s path down another little finger ridge gave me some of the most dramatic pix I’ve ever taken of a mustang in the basin. You’ll likely be seeing some more pix of Hollywood in the near future … because he didn’t just go down that ridge and disappear over the edge. He came back up. I’m not sure why, but you’d better believe that I took photographic advantage.
To give a little more range to the views on (of? from?) my route to the top of (and back down off of) a remote ridge in Spring Creek Basin the other day, here are a few more pix (because you don’t mind the views, do you?!):
This was taken on my way back to where I’d left my vehicle at the end of the day (note the very warm, golden light and hefty shadows). On my way out (I took a different route to get there than I did coming back), I could see the horses almost the entire time (except Hollywood; I didn’t see him until I got to the top), but I didn’t take any pix because I didn’t want to take the time to get my camera out of the pack, take pix, put it back in the pack and continue on. I thought the horses might wait for me (grazing) to get closer so I could show them in their awesome related-to-mountain-goats locations. They didn’t. 🙂
In the above pic, the pinkish arrows show where Storm’s band went up (left) and where Sundance’s band went up (right). Those look steep enough, eh?! The yellow arrow at left shows the shale-y little “rimrock” I climbed up and then crawled along for several yards (it doesn’t show how narrow it is, even if you zoom in). The blue arrow at left is the general location of a diagonal trail the horses and deer have that goes up and over – or over and down, depending on their direction of travel. By the time I got to the top of the ridge on my way up, the horses were at the far end – closest to Brumley Point. There’s a little seep over the other (south – right from this view) side of that ridge, there’s a seep kind of at the base of that little “cove,” and from my location taking this pic, there’s a seep in the arroyo right below me.
I’ve been up there before, but I can’t quite remember how I went up (or which band I was visiting then), and I’m still not entirely sure how I went down then. Instead of going down the horses’ trail from that little saddle (blue arrow), I think I went on up that hump of a hill (steeper than it looks from here) and then down onto the ridge just visible at the far right side of the pic, which descends to a lower and slightly rounded-top ridge along and above part of the arroyo.
In the above pic, I’m back on my narrow finger ridge looking back down as I was on my way up; this gives a better view of the broad arroyo that has the couple of seeps. The yellow arrow at far left shows my starting point at rollercoaster ridge.
Now I’m on my way back down after my visit with the horses. I’m at the top of the ridge above that little “cove” – above and to the right of the left pink arrow in the first pic at the top of this post – looking back at the way I came up (yellow arrow) and the way Storm’s band came up (pink arrow). It’s hard to tell here, but those are different ridgelines; they’re more easily seen in the first pic.
This shows the other side of the “cove” (I’m taking the pic from the same spot as the pic just above but now slightly to my left) with the blue arrow indicating the general location of the trail I took back down. (For those of you who’ve been to the basin, that’s Round Top at far left.)
The trail at the far west end finger ridge down to the saddle and the bigger hump hill (which is slightly to my right); I’m taking this pic from the same place as the previous two pix. Perfectly wide enough for upright two- and four-legged travel. 🙂
And the “trail” where Sundance’s band came up from their grazing on the steep side of the “cove.” When I say that mustangs are relatives of mountain goats, I’m not even kidding!
I’m nearly back to the beginning of my “trail” on rollercoaster ridge, looking northwest to Utah’s La Sal Mountains across the lovely shadowed expanse of Spring Creek Basin and lower Disappointment Valley beyond. If I could bottle the peace in this magical, extraordinary place, there’d be no more war or strife or violence anywhere ever.
The very last light over Spring Creek Basin and my epic adventure. That’s the pond below rollercoaster ridge shining like a mirror in the middle ground.
Epic? … Really, just another day in mustang paradise. 🙂 (I do promise to feature mustangs again tomorrow. They are the very foundation of the magic of this wondrous place.)
Spring Creek Basin Mustangs 