Enough rain to change the contours of the arroyos and drainages and, in some cases, the roads.
How much rain? In at least one place, a bit more than 2 inches, which fell in roughly seven hours.
To give that some context, we got 2 inches of rain between April and late July (!).
This apparently came from Tropical Storm/Depression Harold, which missed my folks in Central Texas and swooped north to the Four Corners area. Harold, we thank ye!
I think it’s also greening up again. Already. 🙂 Wow. We love rain!
Maiku watches the progress of a lone bachelor stallion away from the band he serves as lieutenant. The band was moseying along behind him, more interested in grazing after drinking … seemingly content and trusting that Maiku was on duty.
A storm was sorta kinda trying to build up to the east. It didn’t make it to us, but we’re hoping for similar promising weather this week.
If Corazon can be said to have a certain swagger in his step, he can be forgiven; he’d just had a chat with a lone bachelor, who didn’t stick around long.
The almost-supermoon (technically rising today, Aug. 1) would have risen slightly out of frame to the left; you can see how there was no way it was going to be visible through that heavy rain-cloud layer.
There never was a fully-arched rainbow, and the intensity varied depending on sunshine/clouds from the west (the above is looking southeast), but it wasn’t till late in the show when the faint second arc appeared.
The lesson is clear: Mustangs are always the gold. 🙂
The upper atmosphere is trying to gear up to potentially, eventually, maybe – at some point – give us some rain. Soon (we hope).
The evening was punctuated with a few small, very faint rainbows, catching some elusive liquid suspended in the air. The above – do you see it? – was not only the biggest I saw, it was the first of the evening.
Long-maned Sundance, napping, which is to say, perhaps, waiting impatiently for the sun to set, relieving us all with a bit of … if not coolness, at least a cessation of boiling heat. The background was so gorgeously beautiful, but I had to use my phone (as opposed to my camera with its long lens) for the wide view.
Post-sunset in Spring Creek Basin’s wildcat valley, bands were peacefully grazing while rain fell (or seemed to fall) over the Glade to the south.
And as I left them to their evening repast, I found this guy:
Hollywood alone, within sight of the horses in the image above.
Just another low-key evening in Spring Creek Basin. 🙂 The moon is about half-full. Who’s ready for the full, super sturgeon moon?!
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!
Spring Creek Basin Mustangs 