Spring Creek Basin Mustangs

Mysterium enjoys a breezy nap a few hours after the eclipse yesterday. Here in Southwest Colorado, we had mostly cloudy conditions (and we were well outside the path of totality) – with a beautiful full halo around the sun in the morning! I’m not sure whether that had to do with the eclipse or ice crystals in the upper atmosphere, but it was cool.

We didn’t get any moisture, but it might have been snowing over Utah’s La Sal Mountains at various times, and up-valley from Spring Creek Basin and in the higher elevations, it sure looked like it snowed later in the day.

This young stallion is following a bigger band – at a respectful distance. Even from the other side of a little ridge, he keeps an eye on the other horses.

Storm graciously paused in his grazing – though not in his chewing – to give me a long look on a glorious evening. (I love how his long tail is casually draped over a bit of vegetation.) The ground was still somewhat damp from recent moisture, and graupel still held its “ball” shapes in little piles under bigger, sheltering shrubs like shadscale and four-wing saltbush. There was something to love for all of us.

Lovely Seneca on another quiet, peaceful, beautiful evening in Spring Creek Basin. We’ve had a run of these ordinarily extraordinary days – that also happen to be very, mostly dry. Starting today, though, we have moisture in the forecast – for the next several days! If we get even a fraction of the forecast rain, snow or both, I’ll be doing cartwheels (or what passes for cartwheels at my age). 🙂

The topography of the land where Buckeye and his band were grazing the other day was always slightly downhill of where I needed to be to get that nice background of rimrocks and La Sal Mountains. So it was hard to get it all within the frame of my long lens. But of course I had to try. 🙂

Buckeye did his best to accommodate my photographer’s request.

We have another chance of snow/rain in our Sunday forecast. It’s not a huge chance, but we need it hugely.

Storm is wise and strong, and because he’s wise, he keeps his sweet little band in the faraway places of Spring Creek Basin, rarely seen by humans (I imagine the other horses see them infrequently, but as many times as I ask, they keep the secrets of their kind …). And if he’s confident enough to nap with his girls, it’s because he’s also strong enough to meet any challenge (though it rarely comes).

Happy Leap Day!

In very good news, we got half an inch of nicely wet snow yesterday morning. In other news, our view didn’t change much from the above-pictured visit with Corazon, taken a couple of days ago, because the snow melted very quickly. In fact, by afternoon, with sunshine and continuously howling winds, the ground and roads were dry again.

A little moisture is very welcome.

Snowy white girls Mysterium and Juniper (don’t mind the mud bits – at least they’re finding it!) have a bit of a nap under a cloudy sky recently. The only white between here and there is – literally – the salt of the earth – alkali – coming to the surface of the dry soil.