To find horses yesterday, I had to go deep into Spring Creek Basin … but it was worth it!
Piedra and her band were moving comfortably through the snow browsing on whatever they could find.
Absolutely a gorgeous day! And the blue sky and clouds over Temple Butte weren’t half bad, either. 😉
Fingers, toes, everything crossed for a GOOD winter!
Looking east along Road K20E toward Spring Creek Basin at sunrise. Some of that clearing-storm cloudbank lingered well into the afternoon … even as the rest of the sky cleared to deepest Colorado blue. Deer (maybe elk, too?) and rabbits have been out and about.
Now looking east up Road 19Q toward the basin. This pic, in particular, seems deceptive regarding the amount of snow. The melting really got under way in the afternoon, but that is/was some great snow! Three inches or so? Not bad for our first (and second?) coverings of the season.
And I hiked through a fair bit of it to find some wild ponies. 🙂
Getting home was less than straightforward (all on the northern New Mexico and southwestern Colorado side of the trip, not the Texas side, where it’s still summer-going-on-autumn-going-on-summer!), but there’s nothing like that view spread out from the top of the Slick Rock switchbacks heading down to the Dolores River canyon country and on out to Disappointment Valley. … Add snow to the view? Magical!
The road was clear by the time I got to this point (following a snowplow scraping the edge of the road clear of wet snow). If you visit Spring Creek Basin from the south, via Dove Creek, this is your view from the switchbacks heading down to Slick Rock (minus, probably, the snow and heavy cloud cover!).
Looking top down to, out and across broad lower Disappointment Valley! That line at leftish is Colorado Highway 141 across the valley. The rimrocks that form Spring Creek Basin’s western border are just visible at far-way-away, under-the-clouds right side.
I had such a wonderful time in Texas with my family (minus my brother, who was hard at work between Wisconsin and Illinois)! I’m sending a *massive*, incredibly grateful shoutout to my friend Kim A., who came to Colorado from Pennsylvania (!!!!!) so I could be with my mom and dad (and all of their critters and some long-long-time family friends) for Thanksgiving. 🙂
There seems to be at least 3 inches of the white stuff coating the entire region, so tomorrow’s post might also be late until I can get out and acquire some pix of snowy mustangs!
Madison issues a reminder to the already-over-there members of the band that she and *the rest* of the band are close and following, and don’t-leave-us-behind!
Temple follows a well-worn mustang trail to water on a golden evening.
We’re hoping for good snow this winter to try to offset the past year’s drought. It would be nice to see a coating on the ground as nearly pristine as Temple’s coat. 🙂
Spring Creek Basin Mustangs 