Slow down

11 12 2025

Who needs a nap?

🙂





White back then

10 12 2025

All that lovely snow is gone now, melted into the needy soil. Temps have gotten warmer, and we have mud. Not too bummed about that as it all means one very good thing = moisture. 🙂





Low Flash(y)

9 12 2025

Flash looking handsome in the low light as he trails his mares through the patchy snow.





Snowy commute

8 12 2025

There was still a fair bit of snow, but it’s been melting rapidly. Here, Tenaz is walking down a trail to drink at snow-melt-trickling Spring Creek. Really! The bed of the arroyo is only about 5 or 6 feet below him, and to clarify, it’s not running as much as just one narrow little ribbon of a trickle right through this particular section. Having that nice, fresh, running-clear water must be sooooo nice for them.





Sunshine ‘n snow

7 12 2025

Bia is all relaxation as she naps on a “warmish” day that had a lot of the snow soaking into the desert ground and hopefully giving all those roots a good slurp.





Steamy

6 12 2025

Gaia’s breath goes gentle into that good evening. The temp was in the upper 30s – perfectly pleasant! The snow is melting, but all that moisture is seeping right into the soil, and that’s super beneficial for all the vegetation.





Searching

5 12 2025

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!





Baby, it’s snowy out there!

4 12 2025

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. 🙂





Home, sweet, snowy home

3 12 2025

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!





Not left behind

2 12 2025

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!