Mustangs, Spring Creek Basin, water and aspen – all in the same view. Many of my favorite things. 🙂
A few of my favorite things
1 10 2025Comments : 8 Comments »
Categories : Aspen, Benchmark Lookout, BLM, Colorado, Disappointment Valley, Ponds, San Juan National Forest, Spring Creek Basin Herd Management Area, Spring Creek Basin mustangs, The Glade, Tres Rios Field Office, Water
Light show
30 09 2025The mustangs don’t *always* cooperate when spectacular things are happening on the horizon. Posing really isn’t their jam (though they sometimes do it very well, indeed). However, although there are no mustangs in these pix, I decided they showed off the gorgeousity of Spring Creek Basin to such a degree that they stand on their own (and there *were* mustangs nearby; you just have to take my word for it!).
The rainbow Sunday evening was faint … and then it was BRIGHT. Never more than that little section, but wowza. Every strand of color was bright and clear and distinct:
That extreme brightness didn’t last very long. All I did when processing was to add a touch of sharpening. (I mean, really, how can you improve on that with a mere computer?!)
Then, last night, as I was leaving the basin, this interesting light-prism phenomenon, in nearly the same area of sky:
Mother Nature is booming in the high country with her annual aspen show, but she apparently didn’t want us in dry, brown Disappointment Valley to feel left out. 🙂
We are grateful!
Comments : 8 Comments »
Categories : Colorado, Disappointment Valley, McKenna Peak, Rainbow, Spring Creek Basin Herd Management Area, Temple Butte
Magic at sunset
29 09 2025
Soooooooooooooooo magical!
Weird distortion courtesy of the crack across my phone camera lens (boo!). Otherwise … beautiful!
Do you see the lingering rainbow? Subtle as sunset light. 🙂
Not-so-subtle sunset colors looking west!
And ending the day with a view back to the east/southeast.
Blessed. No other word for it.
Comments : 10 Comments »
Categories : Colorado, Disappointment Valley, McKenna Peak, Rainbow, Spring Creek Basin Herd Management Area, Spring Creek Basin mustangs, Temple Butte
Big horned critters
24 09 2025
Desert bighorn sheep in Southwest Colorado.
I see them very rarely and treasure every (any) sighting. Please forgive the non-mustang, non-Spring Creek Basin posting of this encounter, but I was just that excited to make their (very brief) acquaintance.
They’re so cool!
Comments : 12 Comments »
Categories : Colorado, Wildlife
Great day for a visit
21 09 2025
A dramatic background any time, but wow, did we get some dramatic light on McKenna Peak and Temple Butte to perfectly highlight Maiku and his compadres.
“We” were these fine folks from Four Corners Back Country Horsemen, who came out for a visit to Spring Creek Basin:
They didn’t bring horses to ride, but they saw a fair number of our fair mustangs. 🙂
Left to right: Marlo and Gail; Tim and Linda; yours truly; Patty Ann and her daughter, Chelsea; Larry and riding partner Jeff.
I do love showing off Spring Creek Basin and our wonderful mustangs, and a couple of bands gave us a good look!
Comments : 10 Comments »
Categories : Colorado, Disappointment Valley, Four Corners Back Country Horsemen, Spring Creek Basin Herd Management Area, Spring Creek Basin mustangs, Tres Rios Field Office
Rainbow season.
13 09 2025Photographers love stormy conditions. Is it any wonder?
Am I right?
A bit wider perspective.
Mustangs were around, but they were not as cooperative as a person could wish with that amazing background ever-changing. 🙂
Flash and his band were grazing from the still-sunny side of the bowl to the already-shady side of the bowl (what I call the series of open areas between ridges in the far northwest). I was uphill of them, which made it hard to also capture the very faint rainbow in the southeastern sky. And this was quite a bit later from the first two pix.
Gaia lingered longest (thanks, girl), but she mostly gave me butt shots (thanks, girl!). 🙂 This one shows more of the rain-mist behind the rainbow.
And a last image from nearly last light … just a hint of a prism in a couple of sections in the sky at right. I mean … stunning!
We’ve gotten a few little rain waves the last couple of days. “Rain” might be overstating things a bit, as they’ve been really more like 10- to 15-minute drizzles. The ground soaks up that moisture incredibly quickly, and it’s dry very soon afterward. But we’ll take it, and the night I took the above images, I found a pond with water. Actual water. 🙂 Joy!
Comments : 4 Comments »
Categories : Colorado, Disappointment Valley, McKenna Peak, Rainbow, Spring Creek Basin Herd Management Area, Spring Creek Basin mustangs, Temple Butte
Racin’ the rain
6 09 2025Cue the angels:
As I was wandering the desert (seriously), hoping that tonight (which was last night) would be the night the clouds would part and I would get to see the moon rise … the clouds DID part, and a rainbow DID shine! I ask you: How does that happen!?!? 🙂 I’m not complaining, mind you, but Mother Nature is a wondrous, mysterious creature.
And then, this:
My desert wandering paid off!
If I ever get those glorious scenes with a gorgeous mustang right in my foreground, I’m going to keel right over without being able to hit the shutter even once, probably. 😉
This was the last night to get the moon rising with the sun only very recently set. When the moon is actually full on Sunday (happy lunar eclipse if you’re on the other side of our world from North America!), it’ll be rising in a dark sky.
But last night, as I walked away (OK, I might have been doing as much of an Olympic race-walk as I possibly could with a camera pack on my back, binoculars in the case on my front and carrying a monopod that really is not a hiking stick), THIS was hustling me along (and yes, there was lightning):
See the moon rising above Temple Butte and McKenna Peak and submarine ridge at lower right?
Conclusion: Sometimes the rainbows come and go well before the post-sunset rain. 🙂 (And I think the valley got fairly widespread (though light) rain!)
Happy, happy!
Comments : 13 Comments »
Categories : Colorado, Disappointment Valley, McKenna Peak, Moon, Rain, Rainbow, Spring Creek Basin Herd Management Area, Temple Butte
Streaking
5 09 2025
Rain – or perhaps more likely, virga – catching the western light over the southern ridge of Disappointment Valley from about mid(ish)-Spring Creek Basin. None of that for us yesterday, but we have chances today and Saturday.
How often do you get the rising moon and a rainbow (and not a moonbow!) in the same image? I actually don’t know, but both are visible in this pic … though both are extremely faint and hard to see. The rainbow is nearly impossible to see – at the right side of the pic, nearly vertical – and it was suuuuuuuper faint in reality, too. But as I was nearly stumped (again!) by clouds to see the moonrise, I shot it anyway. 🙂
But the MOST crazy pic of last night:
I’d love to say I planned the above image … but I didn’t! I was taking pix of the moon, high in the sky, between cloud layers (! can’t we have some rain, please, with those clouds??), and the plane photobombed my moon!!!! HA! The dark streak behind it is its contrail. I’m astounded that the moon is as sharp as it is because I’d only aimed and started hitting the shutter when the plane zoomed by.
The world is a wondrous place. 🙂 Especially with mustangs … not pictured, but always there.
Comments : 17 Comments »
Categories : Colorado, Disappointment Valley, McKenna Peak, Moon, Rain, Spring Creek Basin Herd Management Area, Temple Butte
Clearing
28 08 2025
Storms don’t last long here; rain showers don’t linger. The sky clears quickly.
Usually.
The above is the eastern horizon beyond Spring Creek Basin from not very far below the western rimrock boundary as the last storm (Tuesday morning) cleared. The rain was in the morning; the pic is from early afternoon.
Wowza.
Mustangs were grazing below me, but I couldn’t get them in the view until Buckeye had a chat with Maiku.
Comments : 9 Comments »
Categories : Colorado, Disappointment Valley, Filly Peak, McKenna Peak, Spring Creek Basin Herd Management Area, Spring Creek Basin mustangs, Temple Butte
Rain, delight
24 08 2025These pix are from sunset Friday:
Virga and rain (see it at lower center-ish against the far ridge?) from Spring Creek Basin looking west/southwest toward the far southwestern ridge(s) of Disappointment Valley.
Saturday:
It rained. 🙂 ACTUALLY rained. And for at least an hour (in at least some places).
OMG, the relief. … The gratitude.
It started with thunder and lightning, though, so hopefully the nearly immediate rain put out any fire(s) that may have started. …
Comments : 11 Comments »
Categories : Chrome's Point, Colorado, Disappointment Valley, Filly Peak, Rain, Spring Creek Basin Herd Management Area, Spring Creek canyon, Virga
Spring Creek Basin Mustangs 