If drought is measured by snow on the mountains (which it seems to be?), then we’re in great shape!
If drought is measured by the lack of rain, snow or other moisture on the land where drought is being observed (which it should be!), we’re in rough shape.
What Corazon knows is that his family is happy, healthy and intact. All is well with his world. There’s something to be said for not worrying about what’s to (probably) come. 🙂
You know how, when you’re a kid (some kids … me, for example), the edges of heights don’t bother you? You can stand there, look over, look out, and you’re so confident of your balance, your groundedness to the earth, that you can’t imagine any danger? Then, when you’re an adult (some adults … me, for example), the sight of kids or animals at the edges of great heights gives you the willies, makes the ground under your own feet seem unstable, and you really want who/whatever it is to move away from the edge RIGHT NOW?
See those rocks behind/left of Dundee? They mark the rimrock edge at Spring Creek Basin’s western boundary.
I had walked up the hill where the band was grazing, and though heights bother me a bit more as an adult than they did as a kid, when at the top of the rimrocks, the desire to look over the edge, at the view, is strong. Because … what a view!
The edge of the rimrocks, which form a natural barrier for Spring Creek Basin, is in the near foreground toward the upper right. The road below is the road from the main road in Disappointment Valley to Spring Creek Basin. This view is looking northwestish across Disappointment Valley toward Utah’s La Sal Mountains.
The view looking southwestish. The line of Disappointment Creek is in the far right distance.
And looking more northish.
As for Dundee, she obliged my nervousness so near the edge and headed back down to her friends and Buckeye. Whew. 🙂
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). 🙂
If it seems as though most of the mustangs are napping in recent pix, you’d be right. That wind. … It’s exhausting. Maiku watched his pals check out a water source, but it wasn’t very appealing, and they walked on to find a better drinking spot.
His band was grazing up the hill to the (my) left (his right). I don’t know what held the interest of that one wayward ear. My interest, of course, was all on handsome Sundance and the magnificent background of his home world.
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!
Spring Creek Basin Mustangs 