Let’s end the run of snow pix (while patches exist, the snow is pretty much gone now) with this fun one of Madison slaking her thirst by eating handy snow on a bank from down in a shallow arroyo.
Another benefit of the snow: The mustangs don’t have to travel to find water; it’s right at their hooves.
Wary and wily Chipeta didn’t immediately follow Seneca and some of the band down the hill to water. I took this image of Chipeta from not far above where I took the pic of Seneca in yesterday’s post, minutes earlier.
Note how all the snow had melted – she’s standing on a bit of a “bench” in a semi-long-sloping south-facing hillside – but there’s still snow gilding the four-wing saltbush at right. How funny and amazing is nature. 🙂
Seneca’s band had gone to water, and as their way to water doubled as my way back to my buggy, I moseyed along with them.
The sky was clearing to the northwest, but the clouds were still patchy and heavy enough in the western and southwestern and southern sky to block most of the late sunlight when I took this pic of Seneca right above the evaporation cover of the water-catchment trough. Temple Butte in the background was catching some of the gorgeous light that *was* breaking through.
And just a few/several minutes later (less than 10 minutes later from my image files’ info), from down the hill and back at my buggy … the above scene. The sun found a last-minute sneak-peak hole in the clouds to light up the lower slopes of Temple Butte. Just … kinda … wow. 🙂
“Why do you keep going back?” I sometimes get asked. … Really? 🙂 Because it’s never, ever, ever the same. Always, heart-liftingly, beautiful.
(And the same note: While there’s still a little, very patchy snow out there, it’s way melted from the images captured above.)
See the eagle? 🙂
Again, it’s not nearly still that snowy, but you’ll get some snowy pix because I took a lot, and I like to remember how it looked when the world was (mostly) white. 🙂
Sancho has his super-cute winter mustachio again, and I SO want to get a closeup pic of it. It’s a goal.
Meanwhile, he was looking warm and cozy in his winter fuzzies while catching up to the band. Not far to the left was a whole band of south-facing hills/ridges – bare of snow. Some day soon, hopefully it will snow again.
The snow Saturday morning lured me into Spring Creek Basin twice that day. The first time was shortly after sunrise, and while the mustangs were frustratingly far from any accessible areas, the pronghorns were fascinatingly cooperative! While that sort of looks like a giant cave opening behind them, that’s the north rim of Spring Creek canyon (viewed from the southeastish). The pic of Chipeta yesterday was taken much later in the day; compare the melting that had been at work.
Pronghorns (not actually antelope) are North America’s fastest land mammals. Here, they were just moseying. When they *really* run, they are FAST!
They’re more sprinters than marathon runners … and thankfully for me and my camera, they’re wonderfully curious. 🙂
(Note that the landscape doesn’t look like that AT ALL by this morning (or even by yesterday morning). It was cold (high of 34F?), but in Colorado, sunlight means even more than temperature.)
Who better than a pinto girl to show off our snow … and how much had already melted by late afternoon?
Thanks, Chipeta. We appreciate your lovely cooperation!
Fascinating mix of snow on the ground and still on some tree branches while south-facing slopes have nearly all slurped up all that snowy-good moisture (despite the lack of sunshine most of the day). We got maybe an inch … 2 max. It was melting while it was falling. Eh. We’re desperate for ANY moisture. I think the temp hit 40F. … The forecasters claim this morning’s low temp will be 7 or thereabouts. Yeesh. But it’ll keep some of that snow on the ground and soaking in slowly, under another full-blue Colorado sky.
Elk attention-getter squeaky toy now available online!
Juuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuust kidding. 🙂 I didn’t use any squeaky toy or other artificial attractant. They were immediately west of the west boundary entrance to/from Spring Creek Basin, and clearly, I was the most fascinating thing they’d seen all day!
Note Ms. Grumpypants in the middle with the broken ear? I could see even at a distance that something was odd with her ear. Even zooming in, I’m not sure why she has the white hair at the base of each ear.
(If something looks odd about the font, I apologize. It looks different from usual, but in the drafting mode, I can’t tell exactly what (a serif font as opposed to sans serif?), and I’m not sure whether it’s something I did or WordPress doing another one of its odd “updates.”)
The weather is *starting* to look as though it’s changing, hopefully for the positive, which is – *crossing everything that can be crossed* – “AM snow showers” Saturday. The percentage chance drops a bit more every time I look at the forecast, but it’s still there. … Surely that means something??
All dances, wishes, prayers and hopes accepted!
Kestrel.
Blue sky.
Temple Butte.
Not much more required. 🙂
Spring Creek Basin Mustangs 