McKenna Peak (background) has gotten snow before this, but the main parts of the basin haven’t gotten (sticking) snow until now (yesterday). A lot of it has already melted its wet-snow goodness into the thirsty soil. Now cooooooolllllllldddddd temps the next few days.
The ponies are fuzzy and ready for winter!
End of the day … the horses were already in the shade of the western ridges while McKenna Peak and Temple Butte were still catching the last light. Tenaz was marching along, and I took a grab-shot from the window of my Jeep.
Yesterday, while the lower part of Disappointment Valley was getting rain (yay!), some of the upper northern and eastern ridges got snow!
This is from Disappointment Road looking east-ish across Spring Creek Basin.
McKenna Peak across Round Top. That’s some decent snow!
Temple Butte, obscured by low snow clouds.
We needed this moisture badly.
From Spring Creek Basin’s “north hills,” the views are tremendous:
Do you see the mustangs? Admittedly, they’re a long way away. 🙂 (Look between the tallest fingers of the dead tree in the foreground.)
I. LOVE. THAT. VIEW!
And in the right light, it’s more painting than reality … except that the very best thing is that it IS reality! I realize that the above three pix are very similar; I couldn’t decide among them to pick just one. 🙂
From nearly the same vantage point, looking in the other direction, off the top:
Wild country. Available to the mustangs, but I’ve never seen any down/back there … of course, it would be a lucky combination to be in the right place at the right time (both/all of us!).
Baby Odin leads the way (following a pair that hangs out with his band) to water at Spring Creek, just about in the middle of Spring Creek Basin, with that fabulous, fantastic, recognizable-anywhere backdrop of eastern boundary behind them.
We haven’t had a spit of rain since the very first couple of days of the month, so it’s pretty dusty out there. Fortunately, most of the ponds still have water, the catchments are good water sources, and there are seeps in the arroyos that still have water. We’ve had another absolutely gorgeous autumn, and now the temps are about to start dropping, with our first really cold nights/mornings coming very soon.
Whooooooeeeee!
From her vantage point on a slight rise, Reya was in the perfect post from which to observe the comings and goings (OK, mostly also nappings) of her fellow ponies (another band and a lone, wandering bachelor).
I’m loving her mud coat and her fairy-knotted braids.
None of the horses have cooperated in posing nicely by this lone cottonwood in Spring Creek Basin, but it was too pretty to ignore and not share!
Doesn’t Maiku look healthy and well-fed?! Such is the bounty of autumn in Spring Creek Basin. 😉
Auntie Maia keeps baby Odin company as he naps. He didn’t move a muscle, even as she moved on to graze. No matter the species, babies rely on their adults to keep them safe while they nap the sleep of innocents (not to mention innocence). 🙂
A crazy ol’ wind blew in some stormy weather above Disappointment Valley on Saturday. Our biggest color change down here in the lower valley so far is flowering rabbitbrush and snake weed. But lookie: Up high, the aspen are going gold.
We didn’t get any rain in the mid- to lower valley or Spring Creek Basin (beyond, maybe, a handful of windblown drops). See Benchmark Lookout atop the Glade, right under the curtain of rain? Check out this short PBS video about fire lookouts Rick and Linda Freimuth, who staff the tower during fire season. Bonus points if you pick out Spring Creek Basin icons. 🙂 (And yes, we ARE very thankful for their observations!)
No rain, but it sure left some beauty in its wake before the hole in the clouds over the western horizon closed for the night.
