This is another one from the day of clearing after the amazing five-day run of rain last week, and this is Temple in Spring Creek, just upstream of the canyon. Water most definitely had run through the arroyo (probably multiple times during the frequent rains over Spring Creek Basin), and there were big puddles in places (along with a lot of very deep, pillowy mud). This little stream in the arroyo was fresh, trickling water, which the horses definitely seemed to appreciate.
As the day was clearing from five days of clouds and multiple waves of rain, I found Skywalker and his band mates up in the northwestern part of Spring Creek Basin above Spring Creek canyon. The horses were grazing, napping, moseying, napping, grazing from high near the rimrocks at the basin’s western boundary as they gradually made their way down to the canyon to drink at the arroyo. It’s so weird to see the greenup now, in mid-October, and it’s also super gratifying to see the benefits of all that rain!
This, I think, is a different group of pronghorns than the ones I saw (and posted) a short while ago. At least three other pronghorn does scampered before I could fumble my pack off my back and my camera out of my pack. And, I think, the two middle pronghorns in the pic above are youngsters, though they may be a year apart (?).
Any time I can “catch” a group of speedgoats (aka pronghorns), I’m happy!
And look at that *green* … in the foreground, at least. It’s astounding how beneficial that rain was, just about immediately.
While it doesn’t look much like the clouds are clearing in this pic taken yesterday morning, the rain system *was* clearing, and I was out to find some drama. Chipeta provided the peace. 🙂
Aiyanna seemed to not need a reason to put on sudden, random, short bursts of speed during a break between waves of rain … but I could share her need for sudden bursts of exuberance!
It has rained. Over five days, we have gotten at least THREE inches of rain. Now, for those of you who get 3 inches of rain in a single storm, think about this: It could take us months and months to add up a total of 3 inches of rain. Last winter, I think, we didn’t get even 3 inches of water moisture from the little bit of snow we got. That much rain, for us, is a huge amount of our annual total.
It’s sloppy. It’s muddy. It’s soggy. It’s messy. It’s mushy and gushy and slippy and slidey.
It. Is. Awesome. (I might already have said that in a previous post. It’s still true.)
Also hope you’re not tired of Buckeye’s band; I’m trying to stay off the muddier ways until those ways get a bit drier. Buckeye’s band has cooperated by being not too far from the road these wet days. I didn’t want to post regular ol’ dry pix from even a few days ago (before the rainy days) while it’s clearly completely different conditions currently. Today, we should return to sunshine … and we may even see some snow at higher elevations!
Seneca, the evening before last, in the rain. The pic doesn’t show the hazy grey of the rain between me on the road and Seneca grazing across a deep arroyo that runs inside the basin, but it was actively raining, and I was glad of my truck cab’s shelter. If you look closely, you can see some puddles in the ground behind her. And does it look greener? I swear it does … and is.
Disappointment Valley got more rain yesterday. I caught the tail end of one phase of sunshine in mid- to late afternoon, but before I even found horses, the clouds were billowing up from the south again already for the next phase of rain.
It is DAMP out there, folks. The kind of wet, still-sloppy, muddy, soggy, wonderful ground we rarely get to enjoy very long after it rains.
It. Is. (in a word) AWESOME.
Buckeye and Rowan, rockin’ the rained-on look!
We’re up to at least three quarters of an inch of rain in just the last three days. AWE-some!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I was finally able to get out for a fall color drive, and far from missing it, I saw lots of color. Most of what you see in this image is Gambel oak, also called oakbrush. Lone Cone should dominate the far leftish horizon, but it was completely socked in by the end of the day. And this scene was completely cloudy and grey … until all of a literal sudden, it wasn’t. And then a magnificent double rainbow lit up the scene. WOWZA! I’m not entirely sure this area is quite considered upper Disappointment Valley. Maybe the upper most upper part? Most of it spreads away to the left and northwestish.
Glorious rain and color and bows and ponies. 🙂
Just a bit of light, just enough. From an edge of Spring Creek Basin looking down and out and across greater Disappointment Valley.
“Follow the … ” mustangs! (No, not spiders; that’s Harry Potter, and we weren’t looking for a basilisk.)
Most of the coolest things I’ve found in Spring Creek Basin are a result of following the mustangs. They know all the best places.
Am I right, or am I right?! The last time I’d been to this pond was much earlier in the summer, and it was dry.
Isn’t it a divine sight, all that lovely, rippling water?
Water is gold in the West. To know that we’ve gotten enough rain now this year to fill this pond fills ME with immense joy and relief and gratitude.
The horses drank their fill and moseyed farther on to chase the green. … And speaking of green …
To my surprise (the horses weren’t phased), this mallard drake landed on the water right in front of us!
No matter how many times I see ducks on our desert ponds, I think I will never cease being surprised! And grateful that they find an oasis in the otherwise dry landscape.
The sun was fairly low on the western horizon, and fortunately, he was still lit by sunlight despite the berm/bank of the pond and a distant hill between us and that horizon. Depending on how he turned, his head feathers flashed iridescent green or nearly black. No hen landed with him, and I didn’t see one circling.
Unfortunately, the sun was sinking as fast as it does, and I had a fair walk back to the road, and when I stood up, the drake lifted off from the water into the sky.
I hope he returned to that place of safety … maybe with a hen.
As I type the draft of this post, it’s raining, which means more fresh water for the ponds, the catchments, the vegetation, even recharging the seeps …
… like this one. That’s bedrock, a layer of shale (?) in the foreground (see my toe), and you can see the layer of it around the left side in the lower wall of the arroyo. Underground water hits these rock layers and comes to the surface, and the horses make good use of that water (note the hoofprints; a band had been drinking there as I walked up to the pond). There’s at least a 2-foot drop between the rock I’m standing on and the water in the bed of the arroyo as it continues, where it runs down a slight slope, as it might (hopefully) do with this rain!
One more sunlit magical moment of peace in Spring Creek Basin, featuring Maia again.
