Spring Creek Basin Mustangs

All rise

2 03 2026

Merlin (the app) tells me this is, in fact, a mountain bluebird. I know it looks green. Pretty sure it’s not the camera/lens/white balance/color cast because it looked green in person!

That big white disc behind it is the MOON!

I got kinda skunked again trying to photograph it rising because of thin clouds that were just enough to block/blend the moon as it rose behind the eastern(ish) ridges. When I got back to my buggy from a fairly long walk into Spring Creek Basin looking for the *right* place to stand and shoot (spoiler: I didn’t actually find it), this beautiful fellow flew in to check me out from the utility wire right above me and the road. How sweet! How did it know I needed a pick-me-up? 🙂 These bright blue flashes of gorgeousity are everywhere right now. … I’m not sure whether they’re early … or right on time. The temp hit 68 insane degrees yesterday.

He gave me enough time to unpack my camera from my bag, fiddle faddle around and change some settings from moon-shooting … and of course, he posed like the gorgeous creature he is (see top pic) … before he flew off. I got this pic (above), and then everything else was a green blur (pretty sure that’s a superhero character: “The Green Blur”).

And it was a beautiful evening after all. 🙂

Comments : 2 Comments »

Categories : Brumley Point, Colorado, Disappointment Valley, Lone Cone, McKenna Peak, Moon, Mountain bluebird, Temple Butte

Earth beauty

1 03 2026

Once you see Terra’s femmy little mustachio, you canNOT unsee it. 🙂

Is she the cutest, or what!

(Yes, that white in the background is snow … it’s also FAR away and doesn’t help us at all.)

Comments : 7 Comments »

Categories : Spring Creek Basin Herd Management Area, Spring Creek Basin mustangs

Still fuzzy

28 02 2026

Another 60F-plus day. The ponies are semi-shedding.

Juniper hasn’t graced the blog for a while, but here she is, still fuzzy and glamorous in the evening light. It’s hard to remember that it’s February. The days are a little longer every day. 🙂

Comments : 9 Comments »

Categories : Spring Creek Basin Herd Management Area, Spring Creek Basin mustangs

Glorious girl

27 02 2026

Cassidy Rain never quiiiiite properly looked up from her grazing at me (for me?), but she’s so beautiful, and that background was so glorious and dramatic (yay, clouds, but no rain on another 65F day), that I figured it’d do.

Am I wrong?

No. No, I am not. 🙂

Comments : 10 Comments »

Categories : Knife Edge, Spring Creek Basin Herd Management Area, Spring Creek Basin mustangs

Another warm one

26 02 2026

Yesterday was another day when the temperature hit at least 65F. I wish those clouds had given us moisture, like the several-days-ago-forecast hinted was possible, but all the atmosphere delivered was more wind.

Fortunately, Alegre and her band are finding water (look at that mud!). I think it’s a pond that’s no longer (easily) accessible because of washouts across the road.

Comments : 9 Comments »

Categories : Brumley Point, Spring Creek Basin Herd Management Area, Spring Creek Basin mustangs

65F

25 02 2026

In February.

It was warm. It was beautiful. There are still some damp patches from the melting snow that fell (and stuck briefly) Friday. The mustangs were peaceful throughout Spring Creek Basin (Buckeye above). … It should NOT be 65 degrees in February in Colorado.

Randomly, the moon was nearly straight overhead while I was out with Buckeye’s band, so I took my camera off the monopod and aimed straight up and clicked off several shots, not expecting much. But they turned out super crisply sharp, so I’m including the very first one I snapped. How cool is the moon? Just in case you’re interested in such things, depending on where you are (it’ll be visible across North America), there’s a lunar eclipse coming early in the morning of March 3, as the full worm moon is setting!

Comments : 8 Comments »

Categories : Moon, Spring Creek Basin Herd Management Area, Spring Creek Basin mustangs

For the good

24 02 2026

Back to current conditions, though this pic of Winona was taken the day before the snow-that-stuck-day (as opposed to the blowing-snow-didn’t-stick-at-all-days).

So peaceful … but we need a lot more of those snow-sticking days for the good of the rest of our year!

Comments : 11 Comments »

Categories : Colorado, Disappointment Valley, La Sal Mountains, Spring Creek Basin Herd Management Area, Spring Creek Basin mustangs, Spring Creek canyon, Utah

Almost camouflaged

23 02 2026

None of that snow is still there (as of the afternoon of the day I took that pic of Skywalker!), but it was decently wet snow, and so the ground is still damp to muddy in places (thankfully and finally). Almost none of the exceptionally little snow this winter has lasted past the day it fell, so I like to take advantage to show at least a few images, though it doesn’t match the current scene any longer!

Comments : 6 Comments »

Categories : Snow, Spring Creek Basin Herd Management Area, Spring Creek Basin mustangs, Spring Creek canyon

Fantastic flurries

22 02 2026

The snow is gone (nearly, mostly; some persists on the shady north-facing sides of ridges and slopes, but even that is mostly melted), and we didn’t have more than an inch (and that’s *tops*).

So the above pic of Tenaz, glowing glamorously in the blowing snow (and yes, it was blowing hard again, but this time out of the southwest/west) is a moment in time, caught and then shortly after capture, gone with the soaking in of that white background to the super-thirsty soil.

A moment I was as happy to capture as I am to share. 🙂

Comments : 9 Comments »

Categories : Snow, Spring Creek Basin Herd Management Area, Spring Creek Basin mustangs

Snowy butts

21 02 2026

All the horses had white tails (at least temporarily) yesterday while the wind delivered another dose of SNOW! And as you can see from the pic of Temple above, this time, it actually stuck (at least temporarily). 🙂

By 1:30, the sky was clearing from white to brilliant blue, the sun was returning to its super-shine, and the snow was well on its way to melting.

The relief is palpable. 🙂