Colorado | Spring Creek Basin Mustangs

High on a creek full of water

14 08 2024

Hold onto your paddles, folks, have I got some rainwater for you. 🙂

Brought to you courtesy of Mother Nature –> Southwest Colorado –> Disappointment Valley –> Spring Creek Basin:

A full water-catchment trough is always a good sign. Fortunately, though low (in the tank, uphill behind me), we’ve had enough rain lately to keep this trough full – and there have been a fair number of horses drinking here with the amazing grass around (don’t let the pic fool you; the galleta, in particular, is bonkers this year, along with the alkali sacaton). I may have explained this in the past, but it bears repeating: The triangular sheet of metal over the trough is an evaporation cover, designed to help slow evaporation of precious water in our (usually) dry climate. The shape of the cover is triangular so the horses have plenty of room to drink at the sides of the round trough.

The Flat Top pond looks small in this wide-angle view looking eastish across Spring Creek Basin, but although it has gotten pretty shallow in recent years, it’s a pretty good size.

Good thing I scouted the V-arroyo before I tried to cross it. Those are my tentative footprints in the pillowy, shoe-grabbing – and tire-stopping – mud in the center bottom of the pic. You might not think it’s too bad, but there’s a lot of water in/under that surface mud still, and it is NOT friendly to tires or shoes until it has a chance to seep deeper into the soil and dry out from the bottom up. Along the left side of the pic is the arroyo – we’re looking upstream. The bottom of the arroyo, where I’m standing on relatively firm ground, isn’t very wide (hence my name of the “V”-arroyo), and the road rises to my left – up a little water-carved bank that’s nothing like the wall still in place on the other side of the first Spring Creek crossing.

Holy Spring, err, RIVER! I know it’s hard to tell, but this is the first crossing of the usually-dry arroyo that is Spring Creek (when it’s not masquerading as a rainwater-swollen river). Yes, the other side is a road. 🙂 Well, it’s mostly a two-tiered wall; the right side of it is where I dug a channel in the wall the last time the creek ran (back in June) so I could get my ATV across and up and over. It has been widened by crazy people in a truck (I don’t know who … I don’t know anyone that silly/stupid/nutso), but it’s greatly eroded again and is going to need some custom shovel work. (And lowering of the water level. :)) The width here is probably about 25 yards? (Good darting distance.) And this water level is at least 4-5 feet below where it was at its highest/widest mark, behind me, so it’s already running with less volume than at its peak. (WoW!)

I took a lot of pix from here, and I wish I knew how to embed video; I’m still on a super-high from seeing all that water. Bear with me as I show you some upstream and downstream and high-vantage pix. (If you don’t think water in the desert is A BIG DEAL, you don’t live in a desert.)

Looking downstream. Note the two-tiered wall across the creek where the road is (should be). Most of the rocks at left are from previous flooding. But I will tell you, that kind of water can move BIG rocks. I have seen it, and I have moved big (enough) rocks out of the way of crossing in a vehicle or ATV. This is why the powers that be warn people against crossing flooded roads; that water literally grooves arroyos into our salt-desert landscape (milennia ago, this was under a giant ocean!).

Arroyo as defined by Merriam Webster: plural arroyos. 1. : a waterway (as a creek) in a dry region. 2. : an often dry gully or channel carved by water.). … Arroyos are a desert’s proof of water movement – that far bank/wall is much taller than I am. The wall where the road used to be is proof that they’re always changing – with more water.

Looking upstream. Note the water at far right; it was still finding ways to trickle along downstream.

A bit wider view from back up the road a bit. I mean … ?! 🙂 I knew, before ever I got there, that I wouldn’t be able to cross, but I did NOT know how river-esque Spring Creek would be. I love, love, love this place.

Similar view, but this shows the bend in the creek at right. … Try to follow me upstream: See McKenna Peak (the pyramid-shaped pointy peak)? Way back there is the source/start of Spring Creek, which – as you all know, being loyal, wonderful readers of this blog – drains Spring Creek BASIN (along with all its multitude of widely (and narrowly) and wildly variable tributary arroyos). As you may or may not know, the creek doesn’t roll in a straight line from there to here (or beyond/behind/downstream of me). So that bend goes around to the left – upstream of the southernmost *major* drainage/arroyo in the basin – and past another creek/arroyo crossing (below the dugout, if you’ve visited). It comes from the eastish side of the basin – with the northernmost *major* drainage/arroyo entering from the northish to also run back to (really from) the northeast. Are you still with me? There are three *major* drainages in Spring Creek Basin with Spring Creek being the lowest, middle drainage – named as the very-most-major drainage and namesake of the basin it drains.

Water is important here. Knowing how it flows is part of the importance. Back in the very-long-ago day, some other silly people – who apparently didn’t know about arroyos and the highly-erodable quality of the salt-desert soil – tried to dam Spring Creek just below the confluence of the third major arroyo. Thinking they would create a reservoir out of which to irrigate land for farming (what WERE they thinking?), they built a dam and dredged miles of irrigation ditch; the remains of both can still be seen. As the story goes, the first major rain of the (likely monsoon?) season brought water rolling like a river down every tiny arroyo, down to and through the big drainages, blasted a hole in the dam that likely had cost boatloads of blood and sweat and resulted in tears (!) … and they went away *disappointed* (har har). … Mother Nature always wins, folks.

Well, I knew better than to attempt the crossing of Spring Creek Basin’s *river* (without more rain … which we’re getting again as I type … the creek would likely be done flowing within 24 hours … though the water will last in pockets and seeps for a good long while), so despite the big group of a couple of bands of mustangs not far away, I headed out, already on a great big, marvelous high.

What you’re looking at in the pic above is our crazy-good grass, which amazes me because of the little – but always valuable – rain we’ve gotten this summer (this year, really; it’s been pretty darn dry since *last* year). The galleta grass is particularly bonkers this year, along with the sand dropseed and/or alkali sacaton (very similar in appearance). This is from right inside the basin’s main/western boundary entrance looking eastish.

From here, my next destination was the south rim of Spring Creek canyon, through which water runs out of Spring Creek Basin, out across lower Disappointment Valley and into Disappointment Creek, which delivers water – along with a “healthy” (aka large) dose of salt and sediment (apologies) – to the grand and spectacular Dolores River.

Spring Creek, draining Spring Creek Basin. 🙂 Around the near (left) bend, before the far bend, there’s a fence across the wide-open low ground and a water gap across the creek; that’s the basin’s western boundary. Way yonder, on the horizon, on the far side of the farthest rimrock and even beyond that blue-grey tide of rain, is the south shoulder of eastern Utah’s La Sal Mountains.

Not even my phone’s widest angle is wide enough to take in all the gorgeousity of Spring Creek through its canyon, so here’s another bit of view that takes in more of the upstream canyon area. Spring Creek Basin stretches north (straight ahead of me) and east (to my right) and south (behind me) from this perspective on the canyon’s south rim.

Those layers. The canyon is neither super deep nor particularly long. But it is so gorgeous.

In just the short time I walked out and spent along the rim, the storm to the west was already passing.

Looking upstream across the heart of Spring Creek Basin, where another storm loomed on the northeastern/eastern/southeastern horizon.

And because this is a blog about the wild horses of Spring Creek Basin, there IS a mustang out there, though I’m not sure he’s visible. As far as I know, the young mister is the only one to have crossed the creek (within view, anyway). 🙂

Grow, grass, grow!

Better late than never (this was the last day of specific rain in the forecast). I think we can be said to have gotten some monsoon rains this summer. Despite all the worry leading to this day (yesterday), soooo amazingly grateful. 🙂

* Thanks to Charley Pride for the inspiration behind this post’s title – “(High on a) Mountain of Love.”

Comments : 14 Comments »

Categories : Brumley Point, Colorado, Disappointment Valley, La Sal Mountains, McKenna Peak, Ponds, Rain, Spring Creek, Spring Creek Basin Herd Management Area, Spring Creek Basin mustangs, Spring Creek canyon, Temple Butte, Water, Water catchment

‘After’ is the very best

30 06 2024

I think – I hope – that these pix truly are worth 1,000 (or more!) words … but I’m going to give you a few more anyway. 🙂

This is the east-pocket pond, aptly named as it’s located in Spring Creek Basin’s east pocket. This isn’t the only pond that suddenly has water after Thursday’s tremendous downpour, but it’s the only one of which I have a “before” pic.

“Before” was a little after noon on June 27, a few hours before the four-hour deluge. “After” was about 26 hours later on June 28.

Maybe, if you look closely, you can see a band of greys at far distant left in the pond-now-full pic. Fortunately, the horses have multiple sources of water now. It’s amazing how quickly things change (for the better, in this case!).

Comments : 14 Comments »

Categories : Colorado, Disappointment Valley, McKenna Peak, Ponds, Rain, Spring Creek Basin Herd Management Area, Spring Creek Basin mustangs, Temple Butte, Water

Happy, happy toads

29 06 2024

The toads are back! I *think* this is a red spotted toad, but I am no toad expert.

Why are the toads back?

WE.

GOT.

RAIN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

When you get only a bit more than half an inch in almost three months, then you get enough rain in two consecutive days to push that above an inch … THEN you get 1.66 inches of rain in four hours … the toads start thrumming their joy. Sure, sure, it’s mating season (dependent on water?!), but I’m pretty sure they’re happy to finally have some water.

*I’M* happy to have water, for the toads and the mustangs and all of the critters who depend on water in the desert.

Comments : 12 Comments »

Categories : Colorado, Disappointment Valley, Rain, Water, Wildlife

Not good-bye, fare thee well

24 06 2024

Readers of this blog know that I/we have enjoyed a particularly good partnership with our BLM folks for the last nearly decade, in huge part because of rangeland management specialist and Spring Creek Basin herd manager Mike Jensen.

Our PZP program was implemented during the 2011 roundup, before Mike returned to herd manager duties (he was herd manager here first in the early 2000s), but Mike has been an absolutely staunch supporter of the program. It was under Mike’s leadership that we were able to get bait trapping solidified as the capture method of choice (when the time comes), and because of Mike’s dedication to vegetation monitoring, for the 2020 herd management area plan update, we had the data necessary to allow the increase in AML (appropriate management level) from 35 to 65 adult horses to 50 to 80 adult horses. That, combined with the very successful PZP program, has meant an astounding 13 years to date since the last roundup and removal of any Spring Creek Basin mustangs.

Mike is the BLM partner every advocate wishes for and we have been so very fortunate to have.

Under Mike’s leadership, Spring Creek Basin Herd Management Area is a model that other BLM managers and advocates can aspire to. (That’s not arrogance; that’s pure gratitude.)

As I described in yesterday’s post, last week, Mike and Tres Rios Field Office Manager Derek Padilla came to Spring Creek Basin for the field trip with Colorado Wild Horse Working Group members. I take every opportunity offered to describe Mike’s work ethic, partnership and support of our mustangs to anyone who will listen, but this was the first opportunity for group members and our Colorado advocates to see him in action as he talked about the history of Spring Creek Basin as a herd management area and our accomplishments in both herd management and the projects we’ve completed for the benefit of the mustangs. Naturally, everyone wants a Mike clone for their areas. 🙂

By the time we reached the day’s end goal and turnaround spot – the northwest-valley water catchment we built in 2022 – we were down to our local advocates and a Jeep-full of advocates from the other herds.

And because Mike retires Friday from a long (30 years) career with the Bureau of Land Management, we local advocates wanted to take advantage of the last opportunity we’d likely have Mike in Spring Creek Basin to mark the occasion, wish him well and give him a token of our appreciation.

Left to right: Mike Jensen, Frank Amthor, Tif Rodriguez, Pat Amthor and yours truly.

Thank you, Mike, for being such a champion for wild horse management here in Spring Creek Basin, for being a true partner, for being one of the people I respect most in this world. We wish you well in retirement! Don’t be a stranger. 🙂

Comments : 10 Comments »

Categories : Advocacy, Colorado, Disappointment Valley, Education, McKenna Peak, Mustangs, Partnership, Spring Creek Basin Herd Management Area, Spring Creek Basin mustangs, Temple Butte, Tres Rios Field Office, Work projects

Out in the field with a lotta folks

23 06 2024

Six vehicles. One ATV. Twenty-six bipedal humans. Most bands in Spring Creek Basin.

Crazily excellent weather (temps in the comfortable 80s, not blistering 90s or sizzling 100s). Perfect breeze. … NO GNATS (how that’s even possible, I don’t begin to know).

Earlier this week, I was joined in the basin by several members of the Colorado Wild Horse Working Group and associated people, including BLM herd manager Mike Jensen and Tres Rios Field Office Manager Derek Padilla, and (very) long-time Spring Creek Basin advocates and amazing friends Pat and Frank Amthor and Tif Rodriguez.

Some background: In May 2023, Colorado Gov. Jared Polis signed Senate Bill 23-275 into existence. In a nutshell, “in 2023 the Colorado legislature passed Senate Bill 23-275 to provide resources and support efforts to ensure the long-term sustainability of Colorado’s wild horse herds and rangelands.”

Among other things, the bill created this working group, made up of a wide variety of “stakeholders,” to share information and consolidate that knowledge into specific recommendations to legislators in the Colorado Legislature and to the governor. To that end, the working group started meeting last October, and members will offer a first (draft?) report of recommendations by Nov. 1, 2024. Among other folks from other groups and state and federal agencies, representatives of each of Colorado’s herd management areas and wild horse range are members of the group: Stella Trueblood with Sand Wash Advocate Team (Sand Wash Basin Herd Management Area); Cindy Wright with Wild Horse Warriors for Sand Wash Basin; Judy Cady with Friends of the Mustangs (Little Book Cliffs Wild Horse Range); Kathy Degonia with Piceance Mustangs (Piceance-East Douglas Herd Management Area); and yours truly for Spring Creek Basin (and you know that I truly took advantage of the geographic field trip to hammer the difference between Spring Creek and Spring Creek Basin!).

At our meeting in swanky Telluride the day before, our group members, excellently facilitated by Heather Bergman with Peak Facilitation Group, started to more narrowly define what we would like to present to legislators and the governor as recommendations to best support BLM’s management of wild horses on federal lands in Colorado … AS WELL AS populations of wild/feral/trespass horses in the San Luis Valley in south-central Colorado, the Southern Ute Reservation, the Ute Mountain Ute Reservation and Canyons of the Ancients National Monument, where horses from both the Ute Mountain Ute Reservation and the Navajo Nation are crossing state, tribal and monument lines drawn (by humans) in the desert rock and sand to roam without benefit of legal protections or management.

These include the creation of a state-funded and staffed wild horse program, possibly within the Colorado Department of Agriculture (through which the working group is currently led by Wayne East, ag/wildlife program manager with CDA); staff/monetary support for fertility-control efforts and the same for adoptions and adopter success with their mustangs; an advisory board for the aforementioned wild horse program within the state; and the potential creation of a state wild horse preserve.

To quote a BLM manager at a different event, the wild horse (and burro) situation is … prickly. It’s thorny. It’s controversial. It’s complicated. It is surrounded by passionate folks. Seemingly, there’s not a lot of (noticeable?) compromise. I think that at its base, our goal is collaboration supported by the compromises that are essential. Colorado probably leads the nation (or at least the 10 Western states that have herds of wild horses and burros) in support of our mustangs. Each of our herds has an associated advocacy group working for the long-term good, successful management of those herds and their ranges. That’s not to say there aren’t challenges or that more support wouldn’t be welcomed and isn’t essential. It’s a big issue, folks, and “black and white” doesn’t begin to describe the myriad of other issues involved and necessary to consider. I will say that this Colorado Wild Horse Working Group is the among the best I’ve been part of in working toward compromises and collaborations – and best management practices – for our mustangs. And I’ve been in this world for a very long time (nearly 17 years).

I was happy – and also nervous – to welcome folks to my sacred space, my happy place, my HEART place … to see the valley and basin I call home and the horses that are the loves of my life. Spring Creek Basin is so very dry right now, but Mother Nature cooled the air and brightened our vistas (red-flag warnings the previous three days in a row meant the dust level was high) and – amazingly – quelled the gnats (!). And the horses. … I can’t tell you how many people thought I was “communicating” with my mustangs to present the very best wild horse experience imaginable. 🙂

Those weren’t all the folks present, just those associated with the working group. At the end of the field trip, my advocate friends and I had a little something special for Mike Jensen, who retires at the end of this month after 30 years with the Bureau of Land Management. To say we are losing someone respected and essential is to do a grave injustice to the end of an era and his partnership and leadership. That’s for another post.

Thank you, everyone. I hope you enjoyed your visit with our mustangs in the very best place (if one of the driest?! (and I don’t mean to overlook or disparage other places in even worse drought than we’re in)) in the universe.

Pictured in the first image at the top of this post (with titles as accurate as I can remember or look up), left to right: Derek Padilla, Tres Rios Field Office manager; Lynae Rogers, on-range wild horse lead for BLM in Colorado (she also juggles a lot of off-range duties); Kathy Degonia, Piceance Mustangs; Tracy Scott, Steadfast Steeds; Sandra Solin, American Wild Horse Conservation; Judy Cady, Friends of the Mustangs; Stella Trueblood, Sand Wash Advocate Team; Tessa Archibald, Homes for Horses Coalition; Abe Medina, Colorado State Board of Land Commissioners; Will Benkelman, Peak Facilitation Group; Mike Jensen, BLM rangeland management specialist and Spring Creek Basin herd manager; Elise Lowe-Vaughn, Rewilding America Now; TJ Holmes, Spring Creek Basin darter and documenter; Wayne East, ag/wildlife programs manager, Colorado Department of Agriculture and leader of the working group; Maggie Baldwin, Colorado state veterinarian with CDA; Tim Brass, Colorado Department of Natural Resources; Lucy and Trish Menchaca, alternative livestock & special permits coordinator, CDA; Emily Blizzard, acting director (?), APHIS, U.S. Dept. of Agriculture.

Comments : 12 Comments »

Categories : Advocacy, Colorado, Colorado Department of Agriculture, Colorado Wild Horse Bill - Senate Bill 23-275, Education, McKenna Peak, Mustangs, Partnership, Spring Creek Basin Herd Management Area, Spring Creek Basin mustangs, Temple Butte, Tres Rios Field Office

Superior service

2 02 2024

United States Department of Interior
Honor Award
Michael L Jensen
is hereby awarded this certificate of honor for Superior Service

For … the certificate doesn’t specifically mention … his outstanding work for the mustangs of Spring Creek Basin Herd Management Area. It’s been a long time coming – at least three years since we started trying to get some kind of BLM award to recognize Mike for his – literally – superior service and partnership.

We advocates had a small celebration for him a few years ago during an informal gathering of ourselves and Mike and his wife, Shawna (a Forest Service hydrologist), but it was really satisfying to see Mike recognized among his peers at a BLM meeting this week in Mancos. Stephanie Connolly, BLM Colorado’s Southwest District manager, also was in attendance (and took the above pic). Derek Padilla, our new Tres Rios Field Office manager, led the meeting (which wasn’t about awards until the end), and it was Joe Manning (pictured above at left), assistant TRFO manager, who introduced the award and Mike.

As Joe said, the wild horse and burro situation is “thorny,” and it is that and more. We’ve had our own challenges in Spring Creek Basin with (very much) less than “superior” service (!). Mike has smoothed out the rough edges and been a partner in every sense since his return to the herd’s helm almost (?) 10 years ago.

Mike is retiring this summer after 30 years with BLM – most of those spent in Dolores at what is now called Tres Rios Field Office. In the pic above, yours truly is grinning like a fool because 1) I was so happy for Mike to get this recognition, and 2) I was trying not to cry (which, as anyone who knows me can attest, even if they weren’t there, I completely failed to NOT do).

Mike says we’ll be OK – and we WILL be. Because of his leadership and vision in getting projects done such as the two new water catchments and his diligent work at updating our herd management area plan, which is stellar among such things. I’m not gonna miss him until I have to miss him (he laughs when I say (repeatedly) that I’m going to chain him to the cattle guard at the basin’s entrance so we don’t lose him), and I will write more later, but damn, I’m going to miss him.

Congrats, Mike. Your service IS superior, and we all are grateful for it.

Thanks to Stephanie Connolly, Derek Padilla, Joe Manning and, of course, Mike Jensen.

In attendance (Mike is pointing them out in the pic above) were VERY long-time (since the 1990s) volunteers and supporters of Spring Creek Basin mustangs Pat and Frank Amthor (who traveled from their home in New Mexico), and Kat Wilder, author of Desert Chrome and neighbor of the mustangs. Tif Rodriquez, another long-time supporter, advocate AND adopter of Spring Creek Basin mustangs Whisper and Asher (and other mustangs), unfortunately was feeling awful and wasn’t able to attend. (Thank you so much, Joe, for letting us know about Mike’s award so we could be there to support HIM!)

Comments : 19 Comments »

Categories : Advocacy, BLM, Colorado, Education, Mustangs, Partnership, Spring Creek Basin Herd Management Area, Spring Creek Basin mustangs

12 from 2023

31 12 2023

As usual, it’s hard to believe that another year has come to an end and another is starting.

As usual, there’s been good news and bad. … Much of the time, it seems like bad news is all the news that is news.

We need to know what’s going on in the world – from our local communities to the wider global community – but the constant onslaught very often has the effect of hurting the heart (as an understatement). Wouldn’t it be crazy if good news so dominated the headlines that bad news was relegated to the “inside pages” – or not at all? A good kinda crazy, for sure.

With this blog, I strive (in part) to provide a positive counter to the negativity that’s so easily found. If you’re here, reading, you’re looking for that positivity, and I’m so glad you’ve found it with our Spring Creek Basin mustangs. 🙂 If you get to visit the basin for yourself, so much the better. There’s truth in the phrase that the outside of a horse is good for the inside of a … let’s say human.

What follows is one photo for each month of the past year. Some have been on the blog previously; others have not. All pix were taken in the month they represent. Onward.

While photographing Flash and some bachelor pals, snow started floating through the air while the sunshine illuminated every single flake. I mean, GORGEOUS! The bachelor boys are famous for mostly ignoring me, but that light and those flakes demanded photographic proof. Fortunately, Flash paused his grazing – and chewing – just long enough to look at his pals, and I snapped the shutter on a magical moment. The snow ended very soon after I did so – or maybe it was the light on the snow.

*****

February

In February, we welcomed a long-awaited addition: Hollywood’s and Shane’s son, Odin. He was at least a week old when I found him and just as cute and fuzzy and stout as I could have hoped. He is growing so well and is as cute and stout – and fuzzy, again! – as can be! Hollywood no longer has his band, but his legacy continues in his son. This is still one of my very favorite pix of Odin and Shane.

*****

I couldn’t have been more thrilled when Dundee, one of the three introduced mares from Sand Wash Basin, had her very big first colt by Buckeye: Ranger. A couple of weeks later, Aiyanna delivered her delicate little filly – also by Buckeye – Bia. Unfortunately, we lost Ranger at about a month and a half old to unknown circumstances. Bia continues to do very well and is growing into a very lovely filly. She’s the spitting image of her mama – though she’s bay and mama is dun. She is adored by her entire band.

*****

As I remember, we had a nice, lingering spring. As spring was springing, love was in the air. Above, one of our young(ish) stallions, Zeb, was flirting with one of his mares. Really, who can resist his handsomeness or the flirty swish of his tail?!

*****

With the decent winter, we had a nice wildflower season, but it sure took its sweet time in arriving (or so I thought at the time, being, as usual, impatient). I visited my parents for Mother’s Day and left Disappointment Valley still brown and drab. When I returned, holy green! And then came the wildflowers. And once again, Flash proved a fabulous model among the larkspur (it was a bad larkspur year for the cattle folk), globemallow, wild onion and other lovelies. And the grass, of course. Green is my favorite color. 🙂

*****

That light! That grass! Those pinto girls! I saw Reya’s band only rarely this year, but they make every visit worthwhile. Mama and daughter Chuska: lookalike girls!

*****

That. LIGHT! Terra and her stallion, Venture, enjoyed a quiet moment during the height of summer. I think he adores her, and I think this moment in time illustrates that perfectly.

*****

Oh, this was another of those beautiful evenings in Spring Creek Basin. Buckeye’s band was napping on a hillside in an area that wasn’t usual for them. Another band was grazing down in a little cove among the hills. I walked up to take advantage of the view, then waited. Baby Bia had been napping between her auntie Rowan and mama Aiyanna. My waiting paid off when Bia ducked under mama’s neck on her way to nurse, and Aiyanna gave her a quick little casual “hug” as she did. Click went the shutter on one of those moments you never forget.

*****

On a stormy evening that didn’t bring rain (to us), Buckeye was guarding his band from a nearby band on the flanks of Filly Peak. (He appears to be napping, but he was alert, I assure you.) His band is to my left – and they really were napping, secure in his watchfulness. Beyond him is his mother, Winona. Her band was mostly out of sight in a little low place between here and there. The photo for this month was a tossup between this one and another photo from that same evening. Quiet, peaceful, lovely.

*****

October

Young stallion Cheveyo was in just the right place at just the right time for the very low sun to highlight him against the far, shadowed, hill and turn the foreground grasses to dancing flames of light. I’ve said it before, but it bears repeating: I adore backlighting!

*****

This was the first snowfall of the season, and I was happy to find Remy’s band grazing in the western part of the basin. The sun was flirting with the clouds. A great wave of light would sweep across Disappointment Valley, followed quickly by the greyer light – the kind of light that keeps photographers hopping (and hoping). Light snow also was falling and stopping and drifting and stopping and floating and stopping. A small band of young bachelors was nearby, but they weren’t too interested in Remy’s girls. Remy took his band to water in Spring Creek canyon (the rimrocks are seen in the background), and I called it a (beautiful) day.

*****

Our Hollywood, beloved and storied elder stallion, rounds out the year. This was the second snowfall of the season (and our last to date, as it happens). The snow was a little deeper, and it stayed pristine a little longer, than the first. The day was glorious for a hike, and that’s how I found Hollywood – originally drinking at a nearby pond. Here, he’d walked away from the pond before he stopped for a nap. As hard as it is to see the aging process at work on him, and missing his loyal mares, it’s always good to see this wonderful wild stallion.

*****

Taken from very far away, I love all the layers in this image of Buckeye’s band – with prince’s plume! – and Tenaz and the band he escorts. A dear friend was with me at the time, and the enjoyment was doubled to have her along for the visit.

*****

Happy New Year’s Eve, everyone! Best wishes to you all for a happy, healthy and positive 2024!

Comments : 25 Comments »

Categories : Advocacy, Brumley Point, Colorado, Disappointment Valley, Education, La Sal Mountains, McKenna Peak, Mustangs, Partnership, Snow, Spring Creek Basin Herd Management Area, Spring Creek Basin mustangs, Spring Creek canyon, Temple Butte, Tres Rios Field Office, Wild flowers

Bringin’ the sky-magic

12 07 2023

For the last very long – days and days and days and weeks and days and weeks – we’ve had solid blue skies. Every. Single. Day.

We finally got some clouds. And when Disappointment Valley does clouds, boy, does it do spectacular clouds.

In order of appearance from around 5:30 or close to 6 p.m. to after sunset:

Looking west.

Mustangs grazing and napping under the relief of clouds.

Silver linings.

Do you see the rainbow?

Rain – or at least virga – to the west.

More mustangs. More napping.

When I left the bands pictured above, I thought I might have a chance at any late surprise light with the bands pictured higher above. But they had moved quite a bit, and the clouds were heavy, and sunset was imminent. But as I left Spring Creek Basin, rain was drifting eastish along the southern ridges of Disappointment Valley. Then I dropped below the rimrocks (the basin’s western boundary), and holy rainbow! You’ll have to take my word for it that it was SUPER intense, and the photo above doesn’t do it justice.

By the time I got to the main road, that “surprise” light was glowing, and the rain had moved away from the southern ridges.

Meanwhile, to the west … this!

Bit closer view of the mountains.

Back to the southeastish, rain was actually falling over the southern/southeastern part of Spring Creek Basin.

And THIS happened. I’m not sure I’ve ever been so glad and grateful to have a cell phone that doubles as a very wide-angle camera.

We ended the day with some post-sunset magic.

And 0.01 inch of rain. 🙂 Enough to make part of the road … actually … WET!

Comments : 16 Comments »

Categories : Brumley Point, Colorado, Disappointment Creek, Disappointment Valley, La Sal Mountains, McKenna Peak, Rain, Spring Creek Basin Herd Management Area, Spring Creek Basin mustangs, Spring Creek canyon, Temple Butte, Utah

12 from 2022

31 12 2022

Looking back helps us look forward (*when* it helps? sometimes I think looking forward is the only way to go … though I’m not very good at this myself). I think this is the third year of the (admittedly borrowed, in my case) tradition of posting 12 pix at the end of the year that represent each of the previous months. It has been a good year in Spring Creek Basin. After another less-than-positive winter and a dry spring, we had a second-in-a-row summer monsoon season and a relatively rainy early fall. Then things got dry again before we finally started to get snow a couple of weeks before Christmas.

Our excellent BLM partners – Mike Jensen, Garth Nelson and Daniel Chavez – put their enviable skills to work and built a second water catchment in the basin, starting in early summer and finishing in the fall. It’s another (our fourth) such project to catch and store liquid gold and bank it against continuing drought conditions; with the newest catchment, we have the storage capacity for 50,500 gallons of water. That’s really quite enormous (!). (Of course, we need Mother Nature’s continuing help in the form of snow and rain!)

We lost some horses (as we do every year), and we had some foals (as we do every year), and the herd and the range are in excellent and very good condition overall. In September, we celebrated our 11th anniversary since the last roundup. Fertility-control treatments continue apace, and because of the efficacy of the native PZP that we use, and the aforementioned good condition of horses and range, there’s (thankfully) nothing (no removals) on the horizon.

Without further ado, as 2022 comes to an end, let’s remember some scenes of Spring Creek Basin and its fabulous mustangs to carry us ahead into 2023 (some have been previously published here; others are new to the blog):

Tenaz (showing off his rarely-seen generous star with wind whipping aside his forelock) and the mustangs rang in the first day of 2022 with fresh snow! A handsome bay mustang does look rich and supremely healthy in new snow. I know I write that a lot with regard to bay mustangs, but really, have you ever seen a better color combination!? OK, OK … all of the other equine colors look pretty fabulous, too. 🙂

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Even baby horses like Lluvia love to catch fluttering snowflakes on their lips! They do make me laugh, these ponies (see yesterday’s post about laughing with friends!). 🙂 With their thick, insulating coats, mustangs are well adapted to winters in high desert areas such as Spring Creek Basin. Our winters are fairly mild, though we do have some frigid days … and snow!

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Dundee, Rowan and Aiyanna came from Sand Wash Basin in September 2021 and were welcomed here with monsoon-grown grasses. They filled out nicely that fall, but by March, they were a bit on the lean side. I think that had to do with their youth: Dundee was 2, and Rowan and Aiyanna were yearlings – all three still growing. They all blossomed throughout this year, as you’ve seen from recent pix of the girls. On this particular evening, they were high on a ridge on the west side of Filly Peak when another band appeared below, sending them into a gallop that I was thrilled to “capture” in that glorious golden light!

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We may not have gotten much snow last winter and not much rain in the spring, but because of the previous summer’s monsoon rains – which, after a period of tense waiting, filled all the ponds – we came through winter and into spring with full ponds, which meant fantastic water in April. One of the greatest joys of watching mustangs is seeing them splash and play in water in nearly-belly-deep ponds – and then drink long, thirst-quenching draughts. Again, these ponies do make me laugh!

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Corazon works his classic mustang-silhouette-at-sunset pose. He has really come into his own as a steady band stallion these last few years, and his son and daughter adore him. His son, in particular, is a mini-me who inherited both his black-and-white coat and his flank heart. Though Corazon’s namesake heart isn’t visible in this image, I think it’s one that does cause one’s heart to soar, just to see a mustang free in the wild, the glowing horizons fading into infinity.

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You’d never know it to look at them, but these sprightly creatures are sisters! Their mama was lovely Tesora, whom we sadly lost in February. She lives on in their spirit and beauty. Lluvia sticks close to big sister TaylorK, whom she knows more as an auntie. Family is – always – everything. (As they run, do you see the soaring bird in the pattern on Lluvia’s shoulder? She has another on her right shoulder.)

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With green all around him as the summer days advanced through July, Sundance made clear to another stallion, who was a bit closer than Sundance thought was appropriate, that his proximity was NOT appropriate. He does look rather intimidating, doesn’t he? Sundance is one of the most laid-back stallions out there (and really, they’re all fairly easy going, most of the time), and he’s also very protective – just like all of them. All it usually takes is a bit of posturing, sometimes some sniffing and nudging and squealing, and points are made! Successful conversation … without a word spoken.

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Speaking of proximity issues … ! These two boys are former longtime BFFs, with the sorrel previously the lieutenant of the grey. But then those roles reversed, and sorrel Braveheart wasn’t so generous as to allow Pitch to be HIS lieutenant. The more things change … eh?! Our bands are generally very stable, but the horses are wild, after all, and young stallions do grow up and seek families of their own – as do the fillies.

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Stepdaddy Braveheart is quite proud of and protective of his family of Winona and Reuben. (Remember that amazing grass this fall after the monsoon rains?!) This was a beautiful, warm evening when a few bands had gathered together (but not *too* close together), and I moseyed along with them as they grazed and moved from the northwest valley toward Spring Creek canyon. When the little threesome paused in the most photogenic spot possible, with iconic McKenna Peak and Temple Butte in the background, I couldn’t press the shutter fast or long enough! This is the photo I gave Connie Clementson upon her retirement as manager of Tres Rios Field Office in Dolores.

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In October, BLM wildland firefighters along with some Forest Service (San Juan National Forest) partners from around the region (including a crew from Monticello, Utah (Manti-La Sal National Forest)), conducted a prescribed burn to help maintain wildlife habitat on the ridge south of Spring Creek Basin that forms part of the southern reach of Disappointment Valley. Because of the moisture we had earlier in the summer, the three-day burn moved slowly and was well monitored by at least 30 firefighters. I don’t know what the total acreage was, but it wasn’t a huge area, and it mainly consisted of burning piles of old, fallen pinon and juniper trees so grasses can grow. To clarify, the burn was NOT in the basin. But the slowly drifting smoke – which was visible from the basin but didn’t blow over the basin – made for some dramatic scenes. As I remember, it rained a couple of days after the end of the burning, and our sky returned to its usual clear turquoise.

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Napping with pals is just about the best, most peaceful way to spend a lovely fall day in November. There were two bands and a group of young bachelors in fairly close proximity to each other when I hiked out to visit with them all, and it was such a soft, quiet, gentle evening among friends. The horses draw such comfort from each other … and I gain such amazing comfort from them. On these days, especially, I wish such peace was something that could be bottled and shot into space to rain down on people and places less fortunate than us.

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In early December, we were still pretty dry in the basin, but we had this little cherub to brighten the days. 🙂 She’s a classic example of grey foals being born a color (sorrel, bay, black, etc. – my family even has a grey Quarter Horse mare that was born palomino) and *greying out* – though our grey foals don’t often grey out as fast as this little girl. Mama Echo was born black. I think I’ve mentioned before that grey is the dominant color among the mustangs of Spring Creek Basin. In that way, too, these two are classics. 🙂

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As in years past, how about a bonus pic?

Winona and her son Reuben and one of the many amazing views from Spring Creek Basin, looking out across far lower Disappointment Valley to Utah’s La Sal Mountains, snowclad once again from fall onward. If that scene doesn’t scream (ever so quietly, of course) *peace*, I’m not sure what could. Their band and a couple of others had gathered at a pond, and they were walking away. I was trying to anticipate horses walking *across* that view, but mostly, they were lined straight out away from me as they left the water to return to their evening grazing. When I saw Winona – with confident baby Reuben leading the way – I was somewhat disappointed that they were so far away. … Then I realized that, to capture *that* view, my long lens needed the space of distance. Truly, sometimes it really *does* all come together!

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Thank you all for reading about and enjoying our Spring Creek Basin mustangs this year. Many special thanks to those of you who faithfully come up with comments every day (sometimes, it must be nearly as hard as it is to come up with blog-post titles)!

Here’s to a coming year with plenty of moisture (!), and full ponds and catchments, and forage that grows ’em up strong and healthy. To take to heart a lesson from the mustangs and other wildlife: Be present in the moment! Some times (sometimes? many times?), that’s ever so much better than looking back or worrying about what’s ahead. 🙂

Happy New Year’s Eve!