Seneca, like all the rest of us, is really, really, REALLY tired of the wind.
We’ll want some breeze when the atmosphere grows still, and the gnats start to swarm and the heat starts to overwhelm. … But right now? We are so over the gale-force winds that suck out the moisture we don’t even have to give and fill our sky with dust.
Sundance has been doing a bit of, er, mud-dipping lately, it seems. 🙂
A little late-day excitement as a stallion keeps his mare away from another stallion.
Can’t go wrong with that glow … or that background … or those mustangs! 🙂
To all the mothers and motherly ones out there whom we love and who inspire us to care for each other and be kind. 🙂
Happy Mother’s Day, especially to my mom: I love you! 🙂
This wonderful sight greeted me the other day as I drove into Spring Creek Basin and gave me a face-stretching grin right from the beginning.
I tie the look-at-me flagging to this sign every autumn right before third rifle season in an attempt to remind the hordes that off-road travel is verboten in the basin (throughout Disappointment Valley, as numerous signs warn). But the flagging is relevant year-round, also, particularly, in the spring when people emerge from winter hibernation and flock to the backcountry (for recreation as well as to hunt “sheds” – antlers shed by mule deer and elk – that can go for big bucks).
Neither the flagging nor the signs are a complete deterrent (as some folks “helpfully” remind me, people need to be able to read …), and every fall and spring (particularly), I find tracks of vehicles that have gone off the road and up and down broad arroyos.
Contaminates in the waterways, destruction of vulnerable seeps, crushing of vegetation that may take years – if ever – to recover. Those are just some of the reasons we want people to stick to the established roads and OFF the rest of the sensitive areas.
Most people are good visitors, I’m happy to say. There are always those who don’t care or believe they can go wherever they want to go because they’re in a vehicle that *can* take them there and/or are too lazy to get off/out of their buggies and walk 30 yards (or so) to look over a ridge or examine our water catchments. But the majority are respectful, and for that, I’m grateful.
This image is from the evening of May 4. I’m not sure whether it’s in far western Colorado or actually in Utah. Also not sure whether it’s a prescribed burn (I can’t imagine, in these dry, windy conditions …) or nature-caused … or from someone careless with fire in these dry, windy conditions.
People are out and about after winter “confinement” (which isn’t that terrible here in the hinterlands, so close to accessible desert regions!?).
I would have this message for all those I see camping and zooming up and down and around in their side-by-sides and other vehicles: Please be careful of what you leave in your wake. Some people and many more animals live in the places you choose to visit.
So pretty in the golden light – Piedra. The wind swirls the dust, and those particles diffuse the light – like the smoke will later – and makes for a lovely glow. Though I think we’d all like to have lighter breezes and much less dust.
Who could be that shiny and sleek and grumpy at the same time?!
I think Tenaz was harrying a bachelor stallion out of the way. Grumpy or not, he’s still very handsome as spring warms the world.
… beautiful Temple. 🙂
We had such a great time with the mustangs and visitors Saturday at Canyons of the Ancients Visitor Center and Museum!
A little background: Last year was the 50th anniversary of the Wild Free-Roaming Horses and Burros Act. CANM had a wonderful special exhibit all year that celebrated mustangs – especially our Colorado herds in Spring Creek Basin, Little Book Cliffs, Sand Wash Basin and Piceance-East Douglas. To help promote that, we were invited to a very special one-day event last fall, to introduce a couple of our local adopters of Spring Creek Basin mustangs, have advocate and author Kathryn Wilder read from her memoir, Desert Chrome (published in May), and take limited numbers of visitors (still under Covid protocols) through the exhibit inside the museum.
It was such a success, Amala Posey-Monk, supervisory park ranger with CANM, asked if we’d like to make it an annual event. How fast could we say YES?!
So Kat returned and read again from Desert Chrome, which is being sold in the new bookstore area in the visitor center and museum (which looks fantastic, by the way; drop by and see (among the museum’s other wonderful exhibits about the cultural history of our area) the particular wall full of ways to appreciate our very dark skies). She also signed copies of her book for folks who were there to visit the mustangs.
Tif Rodriguez brought her gentle giant, Whisper, and Keith Bean brought his teddy bear, Skipper, who are so calm and willing to meet lots of admiring strangers! We had one little incident before the event started when the wind caught the little popup tent, but as Keith said, most domestic horses would have catapulted into any of the nearby states if they’d been there. Skipper and Whisper were very startled, but they hardly left the plaza. 🙂 Tif and Keith answered questions and talked about numerous topics related to mustangs and adoptions, and Skipper and Whisper greeted everyone from seniors to the littlest visitors.
Our excellent herd manager, Mike Jensen, kicked off the day with an introduction to BLM wild horse management, particularly in Spring Creek Basin, and also answered lots of questions from visitors. As he said, mustangs are the only resources BLM manages that have beating hearts. 🙂
Mike talks about mustangs at the beginning of the event.
Keith says that seeing Skipper without something to eat in his mouth is unusual. Tif’s mom (not pictured), Lyn Rowley, brought snacks for both people and horses, which were particularly appreciated by Skipper. 🙂
Amala and her 4.5-year-old daughter, Geneva (who came with husband/father and baby sister), also got to meet the mustangs.
Skipper may have liked his treats from little hands best of all. See the very end of the carrot? 🙂 (Lyn pictured in the background.)
And a couple of pairs of little hands are even better!
I know. I should have prepared ya’ll for the overload of cuteness. 🙂
Skipper and Whisper spend a lot of time on the trail together every year with Tif and Keith as they do miles and hours of trail work on public lands (both BLM and Forest Service). Little Skipper is the guy in charge, apparently … and he also evidently loves his big friend!
Thanks to one of our visitors for taking these pix of me, Mike, Whisper, Tif, Skipper and Keith. Unfortunately, we missed getting Kat corralled for this group pic; Mike was trying to get home to his family for Saturday activities, and Kat was signing books inside the museum.
And I’ve been so long out of the journalism game (and my computer-driven slideshow while she was reading was giving me fits), I completely spaced taking any pix of her reading from Desert Chrome in the museum’s wonderful theater. She read excerpts about her first meeting with Maka, the big bay mustang from Divide Basin, Wyoming, that she adopted from Cañon City, then bringing him home. People asked some great questions. A couple of visitors had bought Kat’s book a day or two earlier, then came back to hear her read and get their books signed! This is a pic of her reading last year:
If you haven’t read it yet, find it at your local bookstore or order from Torrey House Press!
To close out this post, a little humor from wiseacre Whisper:
There’s always one. 😀
Our deepest appreciation and gratitude to everyone from CANM who made this event possible (Amala, Anna and Nick, at least), to Mike, to Kat, to Lyn, to Tif and Whisper, and Keith and Skipper, and to all the visitors to came, whether drawn by interest in the gems of cultural history found in this part of the Colorado Plateau or particularly by the opportunity to meet two amazing Spring Creek Basin mustangs!
Spring Creek Basin Mustangs 