Buckeye and his band leave the main water catchment on a nice – though buggy – evening in Spring Creek Basin. I don’t think we have fire haze here … but there’s definitely a lot of dust in the air with the recent weeks of strong winds.
Ready for the rest
2 07 2023Comments : 14 Comments »
Categories : Disappointment Valley, La Sal Mountains, Spring Creek Basin Herd Management Area, Spring Creek Basin mustangs
Some green, some purple
30 06 2023
Despite a nice hike with fabulous views, I didn’t find any horses along the route I took. But I DID find fabulous grass, and I thought that might just as well make a nice subject for a post, especially during these hot, dry, windy days (did I mention hot, dry and windy!?).
Looking northwestish toward Filly Peak with Utah’s La Sal Mountains on the horizon. Grass in the foreground is a mix of Indian ricegrass and galleta.
From the same spot as the above pic, this is looking eastish – more of the same Indian ricegrass and galleta. If it looks lush, it kinda is. It’s amazing, given the (hot, dry, windy!) conditions, but there ya go!
And some bonus images:
Reader Sue Story and her husband, Denny, were out to the basin last week (great to see ya’ll!), and after their visit, Sue alerted me to some luscious 4 o’clock plants in the north/northwestern part of Spring Creek Basin. The wind has scoured many of the plants growing in the open and along the roads, but a couple, growing within the protection of juniper trees, still look fabulous.
Right?! Thanks to Sue and Denny for the tip!
Comments : 8 Comments »
Categories : Disappointment Valley, La Sal Mountains, Spring Creek Basin Herd Management Area
Bizzy buzzer
16 06 2023
Just a bitty bee, doing what buzzy spring bees do!
Comments : 8 Comments »
Categories : Disappointment Valley, Spring Creek Basin Herd Management Area, Wild flowers, Wildlife
All those layers
13 06 2023
Some more photo-geekiness for you all: The horses were a LONG way away from me when I saw this scene unfolding. If the best camera is the one you have in your hand, the best composition is what you have in your viewfinder, at any distance.
Buckeye’s band watches a band led by Lieutenant Tenaz up a ridge. Buckeye’s had already been to water and had left, and Tenaz and family were on their way to water.
All the layers of canyon rimrocks and ridges of northern Disappointment Valley and all the way to Utah’s La Sal Mountains look compressed and so *right there* because of my long lens.
That’s a lotta-lotta country … the most magical, of course, the closest at hand. 🙂
Comments : 16 Comments »
Categories : Disappointment Valley, La Sal Mountains, Spring Creek Basin Herd Management Area, Spring Creek Basin mustangs, Spring Creek canyon
Little dinosaur
2 06 2023
I *think* this is a collared lizard, but its coloration is so different that I’m not completely sure. Maybe it’s a female? It has a touch of turquoise at its throat, and the size is the same as other collared lizards I’ve seen, but it’s certainly unique.
After skittering out from under my hiking feet, it rested in the shade of a juniper tree for a fair bit of time and allowed me several moments of clicking with the hope of getting at least one in-focus image. This is a vertical crop of a horizontal original frame, and with the long lens, I was well back from it.
It cannot be said that I know a thing about reptiles, but I adore these lizards as much as our little “horned” friends!
Comments : 10 Comments »
Categories : Disappointment Valley, Spring Creek Basin Herd Management Area, Wildlife
Desert lilies
31 05 2023
The sego lilies are blooming! Every spring, I eagerly await the blooming of these delicate desert bloomers, and every spring, I try to capture their particular beauty. Good thing there are numerous opportunities while following the mustangs!
I kid you not: This year, they started blooming on Memorial Day.
Comments : 12 Comments »
Categories : Disappointment Valley, Spring Creek Basin Herd Management Area, Wild flowers
Not forgotten
29 05 2023
This wasn’t my first welcome back to Spring Creek Basin after my return from Texas, but it was maybe the third. Pretty nice of Buckeye and his ladies and baby girl to greet me at the west boundary.
Today, Memorial Day, is more than a start-of-summer celebratory holiday and third day of the three-day weekend. It’s the day we as a nation remember those who made the ultimate sacrifice in defending America’s freedoms. A hope is that it can be also a day to put aside political and ideological differences and remember what unites us all: love of independence, freedom and family, our unique way of life. Our service men and women who died protecting the freedoms of this country, our diversity and pride in what makes us Americans, made their personal sacrifices so we can enjoy all of the above.
As we celebrate, don’t forget those sacrifices … and what unites these United States.
Comments : 12 Comments »
Categories : Disappointment Valley, Spring Creek Basin Herd Management Area, Spring Creek Basin mustangs, Wild flowers
Delayed but just as beautiful
28 05 2023
It’s taking me a bit to get back in the groove after a Mother’s Day/week visit to my folks’ place in Texas. When I got back, I was ASTOUNDED to see how green it was – after an absence of just a week! And the wildflowers, which certainly had started coming up a bit in places, are now somewhat profuse (all things are relative).
A bit of snow is still visible in the highest of high reaches visible from Spring Creek Basin, and if you can discern the greener-green on the very farthest ridges, that’s aspen, finally leafed out and fluttering in the spring breezes.
While these images highlight the prince’s plume and globemallow, a variety of wildflowers are providing a colorful palette currently … mostly requiring a bit closer look than these long-view pix.
Quite a welcome home. 🙂
Comments : 9 Comments »
Categories : Disappointment Valley, Spring Creek Basin Herd Management Area, Wild flowers
Chestnut crowned
27 05 2023
This little lark sparrow was fluttering around from sage to sage. It may have been admiring the mustangs … or the wildflowers … or another lark sparrow! I was admiring all of the above.
Comments : 6 Comments »
Categories : Disappointment Valley, Spring Creek Basin Herd Management Area, Wild birds
Passing by a passerine
20 05 2023
Speaking of “bright eyes” (yesterday’s post wishing I could see more of Sundance’s eye through his forelock), this little fellow’s bright eyes are literally masked by his markings, and in the overcast light, they weren’t bright enough to reflect light (at least from the distance at which I was in my Jeep). I heard him rather than saw him and backed up to hear more!
He’s a loggerhead shrike, known for impaling their prey, all the better that it doesn’t get away while feasting!
Handsome little songster!
Comments : 10 Comments »
Categories : Disappointment Valley, Spring Creek Basin Herd Management Area, Wild birds
