The most lovely Terra gallops across the landscape to keep up with her band.
Clouds in the background (east-southeast) seemed to promise rain, but we didn’t get any until the next morning – an intense, quick little storm from the west – and that, just a drizzle.
I do love that horizon! It looks like a master’s painting!
South of Spring Creek Basin and Disappointment Valley is an area of the San Juan National Forest known as The Glade. Benchmark Lookout, an old fire tower that is staffed during fire season, has a commanding view from the top and can be seen in the far background of this photo of our lovely Chipeta. The aspen in western Colorado are a little less advanced than those in eastern Utah, but they’re catching up quickly!
The night I realized fall has sprung … err, fallen? … across the slopes of Utah’s La Sal Mountains!
Edge of Spring Creek canyon’s rimrocks at lower left; hills along northern Disappointment Valley across the midground.
Corazon is over a little hump of land, but it’s easy to imagine him face deep in waving galleta grass. In many places, the horses ARE face deep in healthy galleta and other native grasses!
Our horizons are still a bit smoky, but autumn most definitely is here, and coats are starting fuzz.
Tenaz.
Really, I don’t know what else to say!
Not even a dusting of mud can dim the loveliness of beautiful Alegre.
If that grey guy in the lead looks a little different – dark mane and missing spots – than Flash, it’s because he’s NOT Flash. He’s the girls’ new stallion, Buckeye, a 7-year-old handsome former eligible bachelor! He’s a son of our great Chrome and a (likely) great-grandson of our great Grey (also known as Traveler).
“When evening shadows drift …” I think that’s from a Dave Stamey song, but I can’t recall exactly. We sure do get drifting shadows of an evening here in Spring Creek Basin with our buttes and mesas and ridges and arroyos and rimrocks.
That September light also illuminates gorgeously!
Long-time readers know and adore our Raven girl. She came from Sand Wash Basin in October 2008 as a 2-year-old. Red dun Mona and apricot dun Kootenai came with her. Raven has had a few foals; Mona and Kootenai had one each. Kootenai’s Mysterium has had a few foals; Mona’s Shane hasn’t yet had a surviving foal. Mona died several years ago after complications from having a foal, and Kootenai disappeared a couple of years later.
We also have offspring from the 2001 introduction of mares from Sand Wash Basin to Spring Creek Basin: Dun Hollywood comes from that lineage, and buckskin Luna’s line has been particularly prolific (she has great-great-grandbabies in the basin!).
Spring Creek Basin’s partnership with Sand Wash Basin goes back at least two decades now. … And with our new girls carrying on the tradition, I hope it continues for a long time to come!
We humans aren’t the only ones keeping an eye on the newest Spring Creek Basin residents. Tenaz pulls double duty while also showing off our green goodness.
… you want a friend who doesn’t mind when you use her jaw to scratch your poll. 🙂
Spring Creek Basin Mustangs 