Is it just me, or does that hill look like Jabba the Hutt?! Don’t know who Jabba is? Star Wars anyone? 🙂
Usually, that hill looks like one of three “orange waves” (as in ocean waves, not waving hello), but from this perspective, I thought it looked like “massive, slug-like alien crime lord” Jabba the Hutt from Return of the Jedi.
Think of shapes in the clouds and tell me what YOU think that hill looks like! I think, from this angle, at least, it should be called Jabba the Hutt Hill! *chortlechortle*
The horses led me to a part of the basin I’d never explored before, where they were grazing and napping. There are always new places to find … for this human to find. Clearly, the mustangs were no strangers to that area!
Merlin couldn’t identify the teeny little bird, but it might be some kind of sparrow (if you know, let me know!). It’s standing at the top of the “critter ladder” at the end of a water-catchment trough. It first looked at the water from the other end of the trough, then across from the horses, then fluttered over to this end and disappeared. Although I couldn’t see it from my distance away, I knew it was getting to the water level from the specifically placed critter ladder (it’s really more like a ramp with a sort of mesh over it for little toes to grip).
You’ll remember the pic from a few posts ago of Alegre and Maia, with the butt of Terra at the edge. Here’s one with Terra and Alegre and Maia and one of their stallions. Aren’t they the lucky gals. 🙂
I was out with another BLM person this particular day last week, doing something kinda (really) cool (more on that next week), and we were just above to leave when I saw a group of horses (there are about three bands) walking along a ridge between us and McKenna Peak and Temple Butte. Hopefully, I’ll never pass up the chance to get that pic: wild ponies in a big, wild land.
The full moon rising over Temple Butte, from the base of Round Top in Spring Creek Basin.
The sun had set by the time the moon rose, and I wish I knew all the techy bits to get the moon exposed correctly and Temple Butte exposed correctly, but you’ll have to take my word for it: It was glorious (as it always is).
While most of this image looks black, that’s actually Temple Butte beneath the rising full moon! 🙂 And the eclipse was already starting when the moon rose over Spring Creek Basin.
You can really see the progression of the shadow taking over in the above two pix. All of the above images were taken from the base of Round Top in Spring Creek Basin. Then, I figured I should head out of the basin while the moon and Earth were doing their thing … and I’d pick it up from farther out in Disappointment Valley as the peak of the eclipse neared.
This was taken at 9:55 p.m.
And this was taken at 10:20 p.m. The “peak” of the eclipse for us in Southwest Colorado was at 10:12 p.m.
Just cool. 🙂 I hope you all got to see it, wherever you live!
A couple of bands were together the other evening when I was leaving Spring Creek Basin, and with such a glorious (dry) sky, it was a no-brainer to stop and hit the shutter button on the phone’s camera a few times. 🙂
*****
Sing with the angels, Dolly Parton. You are a national treasure.
Spring Creek Basin Mustangs 