Couldn’t pass up an opportunity to share a couple of non-mustang sights from Disappointment Valley last night!
I don’t think I realized until this year how many “favorite” birds I have! I keep thinking “this one is my favorite” until the next one comes along that is *also* my favorite. (Kinda like the mustangs, ALL of which are my favorites!) Western meadowlarks have been one of my top favorites since I lived in Montana and learned to recognize their gorgeous liquid trill of a bright song. I haven’t managed to get a favorite pic yet, but this one was singing his beautiful heart out near the road before and after moonrise.
Speaking of moonrise … !!!
I was expecting it to rise later, and from a different location (yes, I know there are apps for that, and I have one, and it was completely wonky, showing moonrise nearly directly south!), so I was looking for the meadowlark when I caught sight of the rising moon, nearly already fully above the horizon! (It was NOT as far south as the app showed, but it was considerably farther southish than I was expecting. This is fairly southeastish; McKenna Peak and Temple Butte are some distance (photographically, at least) to the left.)
All in all, another gorgeous evening in Spring Creek Basin (and the wind even dropped a bit). 🙂
This isn’t the most flattering angle of Sancho, but I was walking down a narrow, not-too-deep arroyo, and he came to see what the heck I was doing down there, and with the moon already way high in the bright-blue-clear sky, I decided to see if he’d stay where he was while I did some low-to-the-ground gyrations to get the moon above him. 🙂
I think it’s not an understatement or anthropomorphism to say that I and the animals (of all species) are in a state of relief. Interestingly, I think the hordes were fewer this year, and while I think most were well-behaved (and I met and talked to a few very nice individual hunters – including a very friendly young man from Oregon), there was at least one instance (relayed to me by a hunter who witnessed it from quite a distance and up a ridge away) of shooting from the road (totally illegal), possibly after the 30-minutes-after-sunset rule, onto private property (which may or may not have been properly noted as such on their OnX map apps).
I witnessed at least two hunters leaving their camp well past 30 minutes after sunset to go … somewhere? And when starting to head out of the basin one night after sunset, from deep-east in the basin, was passed by two hunters going even DEEPER into the basin. Flouting the rules?! Draw your own conclusion.
The horses have been nervous to the rifle shots and accompanying echoes, which caused everything from startling in place to taking off running en masse.
Relief? Huge.
There’s still fourth season, which starts Wednesday and runs through Sunday (blessedly short), but we rarely get hunters during that season – and not the camping-here, driving-up-and-down-the-road-from-5:14 a.m.-to-well-after-dark (I lose track) hunters that third season is (in)famous for hosting.
Early Friday morning, I saw subtle color in the scudding clouds in the southeastern sky and decided to see what was happening (let alone keep an eye out for any nefariousness). … That subtle color had faded to grey by the time I got out on the road. … But then … starting with just a couple of bands of flame above the horizon … THE LIGHT EXPLODED.
And behind me to the west:
There was quite a lot of distortion as the moon sank – quite unlike the sharp views when it rises? – but take my word for the marvelousity (kinda like gorgeousity – all phenomenal!).
My big camera and long lens simply can’t take it all in, so I switched to my phone. In the foreground is Disappointment Road heading southeast. Visible in the distance are Temple Butte and Brumley Point.
Presented in the order in which they were taken. I know they all look similar … but the sky went from spectacular to SPECTACULAR, and show me a photographer who can *stop* taking pix of a such a scene (you can’t, and we certainly can’t).
Bear with me (because you know there’s more).
Continuing in order … looking a bit more to the east (left). I laid down in the middle of the road to take this one, something I’d never have done at the height of the hunting season.
Meanwhile, what was happening behind me, where the moon had already set?
More gorgeousity! Looking northwest to Utah’s La Sal Mountains.
Back to the southeast … starting to see a different color hue as the Earth continued its rotation and the sun edged closer to its morning debut.
Clouds and light and land to the southwest, where the moon set before the colors took off (darnit!).
One more of our beloved horizon mountains.
Apologies to sailors for swapping words to the usual rhyme. 🙂 (Not really.) It WAS very windy, which I imagine wouldn’t be so fun if you had to row against it or sail with it propelling you away from your destination. But wow. I hope many, many photography-minded and beauty-loving people stopped what they were doing and admired the sunrise yesterday.
The gorgeousity of the natural world comes in SO many different forms. Some obvious and spectacular; some subtle and stunning.
In Spring Creek Basin, we’re blessed to have gorgeousity in all directions … and even in the great vault of heaven over Earth.
Tonight is actually the full moon; the pic was taken last night, and the sky was clear blue and pink alpenglow pastels within probably about half an hour after I first spotted the curve of it rising over the northeastern basin horizon. It always ends up looking black in the images because the moon is SO bright and beautiful.
From Chrome’s Point in Spring Creek Basin, I watched the moon rise last night.
There’s a lot going on with our lunar neighbor this month, according to NASA. According to that linked article’s headline, “the next full moon (Tuesday) is a partial lunar eclipse; a supermoon, the corn moon, and the harvest moon.” That’s a hard-working moon!
It’s been rising over our horizons for generations untold. Still so amazing and mysterious and beautiful.
April’s full moon is known as the “pink moon” for pink flowers in the phlox variety that bloom in April. It’s also the first full moon after the start of spring, which was March 20, which makes it the paschal full moon, which is the full moon before Easter Sunday.
Phlox (I don’t know the exact kind) is usually the first tiny wildflower that blooms in Spring Creek Basin. I haven’t seen any yet, but with the warm temps and the winter moisture, it can’t be long. Phlox here is usually white, but it also sometimes takes on a pale pink blush. … Pink moon, indeed. 🙂
Spring Creek Basin Mustangs 