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. 🙂
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!
It’s been a crazy few days, and I’m almost over the rivers and past the mountains and down the plains and into the woods of home for Thanksgiving week.
It has been an incredibly busy fall season already. Third rifle season descends on Disappointment Valley (and every other bit of public land in Colorado) today. Apologies to good, ethical hunters, but it is THE WORST week of my year. So partly to set the tone for a hopefully OK week (and a safe one), and partly because I mostly forgot these images (!), let’s start it with some golden eagles.
The above image was taken more than a week ago (on my mom’s birthday, actually!), as you can see by the phase of the moon (wow, has it been BRIGHT!). But see that little speck right of center? That’s an eagle, and THAT is what I spotted that made me stop and scramble to get my camera out of its pack.
Two of the three eagles I saw were flying (cavorting?!) together above Spring Creek Basin’s western rimrocks. I like to think they came flying overhead to see what the crazy two-legged was doing, and I was glad to see them so close in all their majesty.
Something a little different today. My friend, writer (author!), rancher AND mustang advocate (and mom and grandma, titles she might be most proud of? :)) Kathryn Wilder has a new book on shelves right now!
They had a feast of a spread, Kat’s daughter-in-law served coffee and chai and other drinks the bakery is well known for brewing, and Kat’s sons, Ken and Tyler, and grandchildren, Lacey and Lucas, were in attendance among friends and customer-friends!
Kat read from her new book, answered questions and had folks laughing and commiserating with her narrative prose.
The Durango Herald had a fantastic review recently, and if you are local (or are passing through at the right time), Kat will be doing readings Tuesday evening at Maria’s Bookshop in Durango and Thursday evening at Back of Beyond Books in Moab.
More cows than mustangs, but if you read Desert Chrome and fell in love with Kat’s lyrical writing style and stories from the sage country (and above and below), read The Last Cows. You will NOT be disappointed (Disappointment Valley, get it? :)).
It really is that divinely beautiful right now. 🙂
Top to bottom: Temple. Madison. Temple photobombing Madison. 🙂
Mustangs in Spring Creek Basin, which is part of Disappointment Valley but does NOT include Disappointment Creek, along which you can see the glowing cottonwoods snaking across the distant landscape, headed west.
(Disappointment Creek currently is as dry (well, muddy, as I type this during intermittent rain waves) as Spring Creek … maybe with a few more puddles along its considerably longer length. But it generally runs from … February? Ish? Into July if we’re lucky. That’s enough water to (mostly) support the cottonwoods along most of its length. Spring Creek runs only when there’s a major rain event. We have a couple of cottonwood trees in Spring Creek Basin (I think I can count them on one hand and have fingers left over), but they’re in higher drainages that may not get more flow (?) but might get more rainfall. The cottonwoods seen in the distance in the above images are along Disappointment Creek outside/west of Spring Creek Basin.)
We rarely get morning rainbows; we rarely get morning rain (and even more rarely with sunshine).
Along with a lot of rain the last few days (about 2.56″), we’ve had a lot of sunshine.
This IS Colorado, after all!
Yeah, so THIS happened yesterday morning!
The cottonwoods along Disappointment Creek are starting to glow gold. And yes, it was sprinkling through the sunshine, which brought the magic. (The above pix are looking west; sun rising behind me above the rain clouds.)
Wonder what it looked like back to the east? Here ya go! A lot different, eh? The sun was rising to upper right. This is Disappointment Road/Road 19Q looking toward Spring Creek Basin (not the road TO the basin).
Now I’m at 19Q looking west up Road K20W (not to be confused with K20E(ast) to Spring Creek Basin).
The sign struck me as funny under the rainbow. I mean, really, do you need a destination when the treasure is right in front of you??
Here we are at Road K20E looking eastish/southeastish toward Spring Creek Basin as the storm was passing to the north. (Sorry about the crazy glare-arrow; my phone’s camera lens is cracked.) Don’t make the mistake of driving this road for at least a few days! The cottonwoods at right line Disappointment Creek, which, yep, was running!
The rainbow (at least the main one) lasted somewhat longer than 30 minutes?!
It.
Was.
EXCEPTIONAL!
And when it finally faded, little curtains of rain were still moving south to north across the eastern(ish) part of the valley.
A person can never have too much magic in their lives. 🙂
Spring Creek Basin Mustangs 