I have been in complete love with Storm (sorry human men; you really don’t stand a chance) since the moment I saw him, bright-copper-penny red with a huge blaze, hind stockings and still-tipped ears, standing with his mama Alpha, dried blood still reddening her hind legs, sweet, divine look on her face as she stood calmly with her spunky baby boy.
That was back in the days when I had to drive two hours to get to the basin and was camping in my Jeep. I have watched him grow up and into a marvelous band stallion, watching over his own mares and spunky foals.
As much as I love them ALL, Storm is my boy. He makes my heart big enough to love them all, and that’s pretty amazing.
If you don’t realize from Sundance’s march that he means business, please allow me to translate from the original and ancient mustang: Sundance means business.
Remember the young guy wandering around wreaking havoc among bands a few nights/posts ago? This (above situation) was soon after I arrived on the scene, so I don’t know the exact extent of his havoc (I do know that I had seen his usual-pal way west on my way into the basin and had wondered where this young fellow was …). But although he was a fair distance from his family, that was too close for Sundance, who decided to have a little meeting with the youngster.
Soon after Sundance’s encounter, Storm reinforced the message, after which the young stallion went off to look for other targets – which he found in the form a big group of a couple of bands heading this way from an evening drink at a nearby pond. THEY ended up fleeing across a deep arroyo, up over a little table-top end of a ridge, down and through another deep arroyo and up another ridge.
Meanwhile, young master headed back to his original targets – or nearby – as seen in the pix of the evening of majesty a few nights ago.
“Never give up”: motto of young stallions everywhere. 🙂
(And oh my GOSH, I adore the image of Sundance framed by Temple Butte and McKenna Peak! Classics, all!)
Kestrel and Maia watch the young bachelor approach from an arroyo and a ridge away. They – the whole group of a couple of bands – were intensely interested in the approach of an unknown (I don’t know that he’s *totally* unknown) solo horse. He sure sent them on a not-short runaway mission. I was grateful for the short time I had with them – and the looks of concentration that I almost never witness otherwise!
When I went into the basin Saturday evening, this was the view to the northwest beyond Spring Creek Basin, its namesake canyon and lower Disappointment Valley. You can just see eastern Utah’s northern La Sal Mountains at the right edge of the vast curtain of storm-rain.
This pic, with its sage-covered foreground, semi-jagged horizon and gorgeous-glorious sky with angel rays above an isolated downpour of distant rain, illustrates *The West* to me.
Fast forward a couple of hours, and this was developing above our southeastern horizon: end of Valentine Mesa, Temple Butte, McKenna Peak, the crowns of submarine ridge and Brumley Point over Knife Edge, The Glade in the far distance (hi, Rick!) beyond Round Top and Flat Top.
At the same time as above, this was the view to the west. I thought we were going to get last light through that window to the right of the sun, but the clouds had other ideas.
While my very long lens is perfect for capturing pix of the mustangs, not even my wide-angle lens (if I’d had it along) is wide enough for this amazing view of Storm’s band under the, uh, storm clouds (he WAS born under a storm!).
The light on those clouds – and the very far ridges (bottom center between submarine ridge and Brumley Point) – with that narrow band of dark, dark blue (that’s rain away off yonder) … WOW. And just right of very bottom center is a young wild pony who recently left his family and is usually with a calm elder-ish bachelor but this evening was having fun (between peaceful-grazing energy-restoration periods) creating havoc among a few other widespread bands.
Storm at right heading back to his band after leaving a deposit on a stud pile on the road (where I am … really needing to leave as dark approaches but unwilling to leave the gorgeousity).
Other than sharpening, this pic is exactly as it came out of my phone’s most-excellent camera (how DID we survive without cameras in our phones that we can take to the wildest places on Earth?! I won’t be without my camera-cameras … but I do love my phone’s camera for the wide, wild shots). Nerd info: The other pix also had some shadow-lightening applied (with sharpening) to better see the horses in the foreground, but that’s it. WHO NEEDS AI when you have this kind of light happening right in front of you????
It’s straight-up magic, folks. Ma Nature is kind of a genius. 🙂 All I do is point and click. And share. 🙂
We didn’t get rain out of either of those storms … but we got *divine* and very fabulous rain Sunday morning!
(Thanks to Harry Potter for this post’s title/quote!)
Tenaz through soft-green, out-of-focus greasewood – just as handsome as straight-on.
And I love that he even found a sprig of greasewood or some other salt-desert shrub to hold a bit of that lovely forelock aside – the better to see his band and let us see his glorious eye.
Warning: If snakes give you the heebie jeebies, scroll no more and wait for tomorrow’s post.
Warning No. 2: Seriously.
Warning No. 3: I’m really not kidding.
Are you still reading?
(Hopefully this is enough lines of text to take up space on most phones or tablets or computer screens?)
You were warned.
After a summer of fastidiously watching where I step and kneel and sit and seeing most snakes alive or dead on the area roads (as opposed to where I’m out hiking), this little fellow/a surprised me as I did a turn-and-step move – before watching where my step would land after I turned.
It did NOT rattle; I caught just the motion of the slither and performed one of my patented levitation-slash-backward-step (it may have involved a bit of a jump) moves. I think we surprised each other.
It quickly slithered into a nearby shadscale (one of our salt-desert shrubs) and loosely coiled around the inner stem with its head held up through a natural “window” in the vegetation – all the better through which to keep tabs on me … and allow me to photograph it from a lovely-safe distance (I do have a very long lens, after all).
Taken from a bit higher perspective, this (though soft as the focus was on that distinctive head) shows a bit of the pattern on its … back? Dorsal aspect, I suppose. 🙂 Another scaly critter with dorsal spots sted stripes!
And young. While it seemed healthy (read: it had some width/circumference to its body/length), it had only two tiny little rattles/buttons at the tip of its tail.
I went off in pursuit of other (safer) photographable things, and when I returned, snakey was gone. (I don’t think that made me any more relieved, not knowing where it went!?)
I’ve never known exactly what species of rattlesnakes we have here in Southwest Colorado. Ours are fairly short – no more than a couple of feet, generally (the ones I’ve seen) – even the ones with multiple rattles/buttons. While the one pictured above seemed “normal” in length, comparatively speaking, it had just a couple of little buttons (and unfortunately, I was too busy in my levitation mode to get pix of that end before it cozied up under the shadscale). This University of Colorado website has a good photographic listing of the state’s snakes, and what we apparently have are “midget faded rattlesnakes” – second-to-last slide.
This Colorado Parks and Wildlife site gives a lot more information about midget faded rattlesnakes – without the pix if you do, indeed, get the heebies just from looking at the critters (and if you do, how are you still reading this post?!). Having learned to levitate fairly late in life, I will say that while I appreciate their role in the ecosystem and always leave them alone – taking only pix and as quickly as I can so I can leave them to their snakey pursuits – they give yours truly the heebie big jeebies, too!
We’re long overdue for an update about Master Odin, he of glowing dun coat and inquisitive, kind, cheeky nature.
He’s doing great. 🙂
He’s pretty independent, still nursing from mama Shane, still the darling of his entire family (which includes a couple of bands within a group). Above, he was watching the group’s following bachelor stallion, who was grazing down in a little bowl just ahead of where the bands were mosey-grazing.
And I have seen his daddy, Hollywood, recently, though too far for pix. He seems to be doing as all right as usual.
Spring Creek Basin Mustangs 