Gratefully, while the Ferris Fire burns 20,560 acres to the southeast and the McCloud Fire and Horse Head Fire burn 113 and 530 acres, respectively, to the southwest (and that smoke is joined from the Snyder Mesa Fire (30,163 acres) to our north/northwest, drifting southish), Spring Creek Basin and lower Disappointment Valley were mostly smoke-free yesterday.
In the pic above, Tenaz and Skywalker, grazing with their band almost at the western boundary of the basin, are highlighted by that drifting smoke to the west. It’s fairly far away, but I haven’t seen Utah’s La Sal Mountains for at least a few days now as the smoke obscures any sight of them.
Now looking east/southeast, that’s the smoke from the Ferris Fire (the Doe Canyon, Far Draw and Ferris fires all have merged and are now being collectively called the Ferris Fire). But see how clear it is between here and there? Not great for folks and critters in that direction … but (again, gratefully), a huge relief for my beloved center-of-the-world Spring Creek Basin.
Huge thanks to sheriff’s deputies from both Dolores and San Miguel counties (Disappointment Valley spans both counties, and Disappointment Road runs from Colorado Highway 141 at the lower north end to the Dolores-Norwood Road at the upper southeast end) who have been diligent in keeping an eye on the fire’s approach: Branson, Todd, Derek, Jeremy and Nick. Also to my BLM folks, especially Ryan and Laura, for keeping an eye on the situation and updating me with information. Anton was on one of the fire crews pulled back Saturday for safety on the Doe Canyon Fire, and he might still be on a fire crew on the merged fire.
The fire(s) and smoke continue to move in a northeasterly direction, and mid-lower Disappointment Valley and Spring Creek Basin actually are not nearly as smoky as upper Disappointment Valley.
The mustangs are OK. Really, they’re pretty unphased, as far as I can tell. I spent time last evening with Flash’s band, and I saw several other bands going about their business of grazing and moving to and away from water sources.
The Gold Mountain Fire also started Saturday in Ouray County, near the town of Ouray, and a stretch of U.S. Highway 550 is closed in that area. Friends we visited in Ridgway on Saturday could see flames from that fire from their respective homes after we left.
The smoke isn’t really discernible in this pic post-sunset (hard to tell as the sun sank again into a smokebank), but that rising moon, nearly full, is red through a layer of smoke. Noooooootttt the moonrise pic I had pictured for this month.
The mustangs are OK, and we’re watching the progress of the fires and keeping an eye on that smoke. Firefighters should make some progress when the horriblebadawful wind dies down. Think safety for all involved.
This won’t be an easy post to either read or view.
*THE MUSTANGS ARE SAFE*
That’s the important thing (as far as the main topic of this blog, anyway).
Yesterday, Saturday, June 27, at least three wildfires of significance roared to life directly south of Disappointment Valley: Ferris Fire (4,777 acres as of Saturday evening), Far Draw Fire (651 acres) and Doe Canyon Fire (385 acres). There’s also the Horse Head Fire (200 acres) burning to the southwest, in Utah, and the Snyder Fire (28,264 acres) burning north-northwest of here, almost directly west of Grand Junction and just inside Utah.
Red-flag warnings; check.
Wind advisories; check.
Bad air quality; check.
Critical fire weather; check.
Stage 2 fire restrictions in San Miguel and Montrose counties; check (these might extend to other nearby counties, but these are the ones I know about, and most of Spring Creek Basin is in San Miguel County, with the southern/southeastern portion in Dolores County).
Kentucky is flooded, and the West is on fire. Friday night, we had a swift little storm pass through Disappointment Valley – 0.04 inch from four minutes of rain. My guess (guess only; I don’t know yet the cause of these fires) is that they started from lightning strikes. It is one giant tinder box out there. Until the little bit of rain Wednesday, it hadn’t rained here for more than a month.
If images of wildfire smoke bother you (it bothers me), the rest of this post isn’t for you … and the pictures, as usual, don’t convey the bad-ness of the beast. … Again, please know that the mustangs are SAFE. I can’t say what the fires will or will not do, but for now, the horses are OK and not in danger.
I spent most of Saturday in Ridgway with mustang friends, and this is what greeted me and Kat Wilder upon our return to Disappointment Valley. This is from the northern part of the valley, a few miles south of Colorado Highway 141, looking southeast.
Looking west at sunset; this smoke is from the Utah fires.
The majority of the smoke seems to be passing east of the eastern side of Spring Creek Basin; McKenna Peak, Temple Butte and Brumley Point are all visible. … The smoke ain’t great up-valley; it smells like you’re in the middle of a campfire (and by the way, campfires and any other kind of fires are strictly verboten (that means forbidden!), not to mention dumb as hell).
Both of these critters were seen on the evening of summer solstice. Both are named for their “horns.” One has feathers; one has scales. Both are desert beauties.
Horned larks are one of the first birds I learned to identify. Lots of them seem to call Spring Creek Basin home. See his little “horn” tufts?
Same lark. Maybe it was the presence of the mustangs behind me that made him feel comfortable enough to land on nearby greasewood to check me out.
While following those same mustangs away from the road, this little fellow (fellarina?) caught my eye. (Much nicer to see a horned lizard scuttle away underfoot than the longer, more slithery kind!)
I didn’t realize it at first, but it was hunting around an ant hill.
I started to see it darting forward, and that’s what alerted me that it was going after something on the ground, presumably insects. Too bad it’s out of focus, but it helps the story!
You might think this one is out of focus – I did, too – but look at that little dirt ball in front of the lizard. See the bug? It didn’t last long!
Is it just me, or does that look like a satisfied little lizard? 🙂
Are you folks seeing this planetary parade in your evening sky?
My phone says these were taken about 10 minutes till 10 p.m., and I took them Wednesday night. It still amazes me that my phone takes such decent pix of the night sky, though I’ll admit that it’s hard to tell that’s a waxing and very delicate crescent moon (setting).
I’ve been watching at least a couple of planets the last several evenings – enjoying, not photographing or even attempting to. Then I remembered that my phone isn’t too shabby at taking night-sky pix. And you have to know by now that I’m a sucker for the moon. 🙂
AI Google says this to explain the above:
You are witnessing a spectacular “mini planet parade” featuring a slender, waxing crescent Moon aligning with the brilliant planets Venus and Jupiter, along with Mercury. [1, 2]
The bright “stars” you are seeing are actually these inner and outer planets, which always shine exceptionally bright and steady compared to twinkling stars. The details of this cosmic alignment include: [1, 2, 3]
The Planets:Venus is by far the brightest, hanging lowest in the sky. Jupiter, the largest planet, is shining brightly nearby, while elusive Mercury sits lowest on the horizon, fading as twilight sets in. [1, 2, 3, 4, 5]
The Moon: The delicate crescent is gliding near this trio and is beautifully illuminated by earthshine—sunlight reflecting off Earth’s oceans and clouds. [1, 2]
The Stars: If you have an unobstructed view and clear skies, you might also spot the twin stars of Gemini (Castor and Pollux) or the Beehive Star Cluster framing the scene higher up. [1, 2]
For the best viewing experience, find a location with a wide, flat, and dark western horizon right after sunset. Binoculars can help you spot Mercury before it slips below the horizon, and they will transform the crescent Moon’s backdrop into a glittering swarm of stars in the Beehive Cluster. [1, 2]
I don’t know about ya’ll, but I still don’t know which is which; is it Venus, “by far the brightest, hanging lowest in the sky” … or Mercury, sitting “lowest on the horizon”? I mean, if they’re both the lowest, which is the *lowest*? Ha. Venus must be the bright “star” just to the lower right of the moon? Expert stargazers, please help me!
You probably didn’t know this was the post you needed. Mustangs + art = fabulous.
The year 2007, the year of the first Spring Creek Basin roundup I attended, was a big year for me (more on this coming in mid-September). This post focuses on my friend and artist Karen Keene Day, whom I met that September, courtesy of Pati and David Temple. Karen and I forged a firm friendship then, and she has been out numerous/many/lots of times since then to see the mustangs. I started visiting Spring Creek Basin in 2002; Karen first visited in 2003. She visited the BLM/USFS office in Durango, and a woman there put her in touch with Pati. “I parked my car in the shade and called Pati … and she didn’t stop talking about the mustangs!”
A lot of us trace our Spring Creek Basin mustangs obsession back to Pati. Fondly so!
Karen has always been an artist … always been a horse lover, though she didn’t have her first horse until adulthood … and in 1999, after her first visit to Pryor Mountain Wild Horse Range (Wyoming and Montana), she focused her art, which had always included horses, including Andalusians in Spain, completely on wild horses.
Fast forward from those years to this past Friday night: The opening event was held for Karen’s June art show at Decker Community Room in Ridgway, Colorado. Her absolutely amazing art fills the walls with color and movement and spirit and sheer beauty. And they span her amazing wild-horse-art career from 1999 to 2026. If you find yourself in Colorado, on Colorado’s Western Slope, in the quirky western town of Ridgway, even if you’re just passing through, do your heart and art-appreciating self a favor and stop in to view Karen’s art. The following photos can’t do justice to just how fantastic the entire exhibit looks.
Writer Kathryn Wilder pauses to look at samples of Karen’s art upon arrival at Decker Community Room on Ridgway’s Clinton Street (a short, buzzing few blocks of galleries and restaurants just off the main drag).
Karen (center, black shirt) and her husband, Floyd (seated at right), greeted visitors. We arrived right at the beginning of the opening, and the venue quickly became packed with appreciative art viewers!
Floyd, a retired engineer, is an artist in his own right and also has had showings of his art in Ridgway. His preferred subjects are the cows, calves and bulls that call the ranch country at the edge of the San Juan Mountains home.
Karen’s art comes in many sizes and a variety of semi-similar abstract styles, showing her evolution as an artist. I have loved Karen’s art for nearly 20 years, since I first set eyes on it! I challenge you to be UNmoved by the spirit and movement and beauty illustrated by her vision of wild horses and the wild places they call home. Karen’s quote at upper left: “Peace and unintentional creativity comes to me when I paint.”
You thought mustangs came from drab, dry, desert-brown ranges, didn’t you? The colors she sees in the natural world absolutely inspires me.
You see the faces of horses, don’t you? More proof of Karen’s unique creativity: These are pans she has used below her paintings to catch drips and drops of paint as she boldly creates her art … and then she made art of those very pans! At right are some of her own brushes and drop cloths that she has used while creating her art.
Absolutely gorgeous.
Karen’s exhibit also includes images of her painting and visiting various ranges and wild horse sanctuaries. I love the sketch below the pictures … those are Spring Creek Basin mustangs.
More sketches and journal entries from her visits to mustangs. In addition to Spring Creek Basin, she has visited Pryor Mountain, Little Book Cliffs (near Grand Junction, Colorado), Sand Wash Basin (near Craig, Colorado) and Piceance-East Douglas (near Meeker, Colorado), as well as various East Coast wild horse herds!
You might have noticed that the large black-and-white painting at left in the image above features in a few of the pix. I think that wasn’t necessarily conscious, but that’s Hope, and she is most gratefully mine, gifted to me by Karen many years ago. Karen wanted to include Hope in her art show, and I was thrilled to deliver her to Ridgway, though my wall looks awfully bare without her (I’ll get her back at the end of June). 🙂 Karen and Floyd both told me that many visitors had already told them she was one of their favorites of her paintings in the show.
At right is Chrome. Karen’s words above him read: “A man who moves away from nature loses his heart.”
My most beloved Grey (also known as Traveler), memorialized and honored in Karen’s vivid vision and colors. I love that his image at left is in “royal” purple; Grey was short for Sir Grey, and by that, I mean(t) king of mustangs. That one was painted in 2013. At right, titled “Return to Disappointment Valley,” 2008: We’re certain that’s Grey after his return to Spring Creek Basin after he was erroneously removed from the basin during the 2007 roundup … and returned a month later, the day I started my documentation of Spring Creek Basin’s mustangs.
Love the detail of his name stenciled down the side of the canvas. And Kat pointed out the word “SOUL” at lower center on the front of Grey.
In Karen’s writing at right: “Animals are God’s gift to people to teach us how to treat others.”
Left to right: Fellow Ridgway resident (for 30-plus years), artist and mustang advocate and adopter (including of Spring Creek Basin mustangs) Alice Billings, Kat (also a mustang advocate and adopter) and yours truly (they made me stand on the downhill side of the ramp :)).
Kat and I with Karen – mustang chix all.
Karen’s art show runs through June 26. All the art comes down June 27. Visit while you can. You will NOT be disappointed (!). 🙂
Yesterday morning, I spotted this handsome lark sparrow foraging on the ground near a road. Merlin helped me identify it by its song (and that of others nearby), and isn’t it a lovely little bird! I particularly love this description from Cornell’s All About Birds website: “This large sparrow may be brown, but its harlequin facial pattern and white tail spots make it a standout among sparrows. Males sing a melodious jumble of churrs, buzzes, and trills reminiscent of an Old World lark.” I’m not sure what an “Old World lark” sounds like, but I did enjoy listening to the variety of trills from a variety of birds!
I also saw these lovelies swooping and soaring and preening on a fence wire:
I wish I’d caught the “sidle closer” steps as the bird on the right moved closer to its friend. (I *think* these are both males, but I’d love to be corrected?)
All About Birds says this about them: “You can find the adaptable Barn Swallow feeding in open habitats from fields, parks, and roadway edges to marshes, meadows, ponds, and coastal waters. Their nests are often easy to spot under the eaves or inside of sheds, barns, bridges and other structures.”
They use mud to build their nests, and we’re a bit in short supply of mud at the moment. Though Disappointment Creek wasn’t too far away as the sparrow dives, so hopefully that mud is close (enough) at hand (err, wing).
A different pair, taken from the same place just a bit farther along on the same fence wire.
Aren’t they magnificent? Cornell says they’re the most abundant and widely distributed swallow species in the world, but that doesn’t stop them from being simply stunning little birds.
A couple of interesting facts (among a few), also from All About Birds:
Although the killing of egrets is often cited for inspiring the U.S. conservation movement, it was the millinery (hat-making) trade’s impact on Barn Swallows that prompted naturalist George Bird Grinnell’s 1886 Forest & Stream editorial decrying the waste of bird life. His essay led to the founding of the first Audubon Society.
According to legend, the Barn Swallow got its forked tail because it stole fire from the gods to bring to people. An angry deity hurled a firebrand at the swallow, singeing away its middle tail feathers.
What do they eat? “Barn Swallows feed on the wing, snagging insects from just above the ground or water to heights of 100 feet or more.” With gnat season upon us, feed, swallows, feed on those wings! 🙂
Big day in Spring Creek Basin yesterday, and I want to give a big shout-out to everyone who had a hand in the rescue of a young visitor from the Midwest.
The visitor had a Garmin In-Reach communication device and with that, was able to reach her mother, who contacted Tres Rios Field Office, who got the message to one of my awesome BLM folks, Ryan Schroeder, who was able to reach me. She also reached out to the fine folks at Colorado 4×4 Rescue and Recovery, who have assisted us previously with another stuck vehicle. San Miguel Sheriff’s Office personnel and BLM law-enforcement rangers also were notified and aware of the situation.
It’s worth noting that cell service in the basin, no matter what service you have (and if you don’t have AT&T, you’re pretty well toast), is spotty, and there’s nothing in the area where she got stuck.
Huge, huge thanks to neighbor Tyrell, who jumped into action with his daughter, Makena, and their big tractor to motor deep into Spring Creek Basin on rough roads where lesser vehicles might fear to roll (for good reason, really :)) to pull out the visitor’s vehicle and get her safely on the return path out of the basin.
Another note, and this is not a criticism of the visitor herself, who had never been to Spring Creek Basin: Please be aware of and HEED the “no motor vehicles” signs. Not only are those in place to protect the very fragile and incredibly drought-stressed soil and vegetation the mustangs depend on to survive, they’re placed where they are to protect humans as well. She missed the sign while following heavy tire tracks from other visitors – DIRECTLY PAST A SIGN. Those folks are going around an erosion-caused washout across the road, and while I understand the desire to explore farther, that illegal bypass route not only has destroyed the vegetation in that area, it led directly to someone getting her vehicle stuck miles and miles from help. If she hadn’t had her communication device, she would have had a LONG walk out to the main road, and as few people pass through Disappointment Valley on any given day, and she didn’t have cell service, help might have been a long time coming. I was planning a visit to the basin yesterday evening, but her vehicle wasn’t visible from the road, and *I* don’t pass that initial washout and sign, which I helped our BLM guys place last fall! I’d never have found her if I wasn’t actively looking for her.
That is NOT ground to be driven over! At least one person apparently heeded the sign and turned around. The water catchment is directly behind me from this image, and someone had literally driven directly over branches that I’ve dragged down the hill, along with old, dead tree trunks, and placed all along the other side of the road (I’m actually standing on the road, and the washout is directly to the right) to try to keep people from driving on THAT fragile soil and vegetation just because they’re too lazy to get out of the buggy or truck to walk down and look at the catchment system closer.
The sign and blockade had mostly worked. … Those tracks from before (see the above link to last November’s sign-posting) had semi-healed … until this recent spate of destruction. We shouldn’t have to pepper the basin with signs asking people to respect the land and wildlife. (And I haven’t even posted about all the wanton, deliberate destruction I’ve seen in other places this year, last year, every year, from multiple “poor apple” visitors. It makes me mad and sad in equal measure every time I see it.)
So two parts to this post:
BIG THANKS to all the people who came together to get this visitor and her vehicle safely out of Spring Creek Basin! You are all so very appreciated!
And please, *please*, consider the mustangs and other wildlife when you visit Spring Creek Basin. Your momentary “fun” has very real and lasting negative impacts. Please visit with respect.
We want you to enjoy the scenery and mustangs of Spring Creek Basin, and we want you to make it home … from our home.
Why am I showing you all this very-far-away image of a pronghorn doe in the middle of a vast, open, empty stretch of land in Spring Creek Basin – and again, from a very great distance?
Because it’s not empty.
There’s mama pronghorn, of course. I saw her as I arrived at my usual spot from which I scan as much of the basin as I can for mustangs and other interesting things.
What you *can’t* see is her baby, curled tightly up into the edge of one of the sagebrush or saltbushes you see dotting the landscape. *I* can’t see it, even zoomed in, and then I forgot exactly which one it curled up against. Nature’s camouflage, indeed!
🙂
I saw it only briefly, through the binoculars, when she was with it, and it folded those impossibly long legs, dropped and went into hiding right before my glued-to-the-glass eyeballs – and then I forgot which bush it was near as I watched mama start to walk away, clearly worried about the choice between staying with her baby and my presence on a not-far-enough-away-for-comfort hill.
*Note: Mama pronghorns, like deer and elk – and domestic bovines – tuck their very-new babies into hiding, and the babies’ inborn instinct is to stay there, scentless, until mama returns. Mustangs do NOT perform this behavior, keeping their babies with them always, and the entire band provides protection to any outside threat.
While scanning the basin for mustangs, I then noticed a group of five pronghorns much closer below me. I’d walked away a little distance to look at them without my camera (never leave your camera behind), so what follows are some cellphone pix after they noticed me and made a big circle away and then up and around me to where they were basically above mama prongs. (I think I use my cell phone these days for more than actually making calls; how crazy!)
Three of the five; see them? Sort of center, light dots. Across the bottom/foreground is the berm of the road, and in the FAR back distance (near the very top of the pic, a bit to the right of center), those white dots are mustangs.
The other two of the five, following the first three. What a great view of Spring Creek Basin, eh? Spring Creek arroyo is the dark line in the semi-middle of the pic, on its way to Spring Creek canyon, where all the water gathered in Spring Creek Basin runs across part of Disappointment Valley to join Disappointment Creek, which eventually joins the Dolores River on its way to the Colorado River.
A top-down view of the aforementioned Spring Creek canyon – that’s the south-facing north wall of the canyon, spread-eagled like a, well, eagle’s wings. 🙂 See the pronghorns? All five are in this pic. You bet I was kicking myself for having walked away from my camera, but I didn’t expect them to give me such a great view! In the first two pix, I was looking down to the eastish and northeastish; now I’m looking fairly northish.
Now I’m looking westish/southwestish up the hill “behind” me (from the direction I was facing when I first saw them downhill from me). From that vantage point, they stopped, and I was able to regain my big gun (I never left the immediate area where I’d stopped to glass the basin), and they graciously waited while I snapped off some pix. They could see the mama below – and she could see them – from this point. The road is down below them to the left.
Note that the doe immediately in front of the buck looks suspiciously round in the belly. 🙂 Soon-to-be more new life!
When they all went out of sight down the hill, I decided that they didn’t need any continuing paparazzi, and I didn’t need to visit farther into the basin that day, and I headed back out. Good luck, little prongs; I hope to see you running soon like the fastest land mammal in North America that you were born to be!
