Near and far

27 07 2026

This little fellow or gal scrambled into the middle of a four-wing saltbush (I think? I didn’t stop to ID it at the time). Very shy but maybe one of the bigger horned lizards I’ve seen – and certainly recently. Probably about the size/length of the palm of my hand. I think each individual is different with its coloration/patterns, too. Check out the cool yellowish spots on the dorsal side of this one; they made me think of a butterfly’s markings, so they might be to deter predators?

I had just walked back up the hill to the road from visiting with a couple of bands when the sun sank into a low cloud right above the horizon, and I thought (silly me!) that was sunset. … But THEN … the sun found a sliver of a break between cloud and horizon and sent its good-night-world light across Spring Creek Basin. See the partial rainbow at nearly center over Round Top in the low distance? And if you look closely, there’s a band of horses (anOTHER) band of horses) that appeared walking west across the northern base of what I call the east twin butte at lower right.

Note to self: The light’s not done till it’s DONE.

Not much of a theme to the post today … just a couple of glimpses of Spring Creek Basin this past weekend. 🙂





Smoke to storm

18 07 2026

We don’t do things by halves here in Colorado.

Smoke from wildfires? Unfortunately.

Spectacular sky from incoming storm days later? You betcha.

From Spring Creek Basin’s western rimrock boundary looking southeast at the very end of yesterday.

Looking east from the same place. The storm was to the north – our left as we’re looking out over the basin here.

One of the most spectacular jags of lightning I’ve ever seen lit up that northern sky (not close, not nearly far enough away), and I took that as my sign to hit the road, which was still a bit of a hike down to the right. As I headed down the hill, so did the ponies I’d been visiting with. No fools, they (or me!).





It takes a little rain …

27 04 2026

Note the slight rainbow at far right, looking pretty much straight southeast up-valley Disappointment. Familiar icons at far left make up Spring Creek Basin’s eastern horizon.

If it looks wet, it was. Give or take (thanks for the *give*, Mz Nature!), Disappointment Valley got half an inch of rain. The great thing was that it kept coming. … The sunshine would break through … then another wave of rain would pass through … then the sunshine would break through … then another wave would pass through.

Much needed; much gratitude!





April magic – no foolin’

2 04 2026

We got rain. 🙂

Later, as the sky was clearing, while waves of rain were still pushing across Disappointment Valley, the magic appeared:

The wide, wide, super-wide views. Even with my phone, I had to go wiiiiiide to get the entire rainbow – and its double – in view.

My unicorn (otherwise known as Winona). 🙂

Yesterday might have been April Fools’ Day, but the magic was real! SO incredibly thankful for the rain (very light but most of the day … and after dark again). The world instantly looks greener.





Fabulousity

15 10 2025

We rarely get morning rainbows; we rarely get morning rain (and even more rarely with sunshine).

Along with a lot of rain the last few days (about 2.56″), we’ve had a lot of sunshine.

This IS Colorado, after all!

Yeah, so THIS happened yesterday morning!

The cottonwoods along Disappointment Creek are starting to glow gold. And yes, it was sprinkling through the sunshine, which brought the magic. (The above pix are looking west; sun rising behind me above the rain clouds.)

Wonder what it looked like back to the east? Here ya go! A lot different, eh? The sun was rising to upper right. This is Disappointment Road/Road 19Q looking toward Spring Creek Basin (not the road TO the basin).

Now I’m at 19Q looking west up Road K20W (not to be confused with K20E(ast) to Spring Creek Basin).

The sign struck me as funny under the rainbow. I mean, really, do you need a destination when the treasure is right in front of you??

Here we are at Road K20E looking eastish/southeastish toward Spring Creek Basin as the storm was passing to the north. (Sorry about the crazy glare-arrow; my phone’s camera lens is cracked.) Don’t make the mistake of driving this road for at least a few days! The cottonwoods at right line Disappointment Creek, which, yep, was running!

The rainbow (at least the main one) lasted somewhat longer than 30 minutes?!

It.

Was.

EXCEPTIONAL!

And when it finally faded, little curtains of rain were still moving south to north across the eastern(ish) part of the valley.

A person can never have too much magic in their lives. 🙂





Spectacularity

4 10 2025

Don’t hate me for making up spectacular words to match the gorgeousity of the magic scenery, painted by Mother Nature. … Anyone would (and should) do it. 🙂

(And yes, I did get semi-soaked!)

“It won’t rain.”

The rain came from behind-ish me (southish), and though it lasted (at a guess) less than five minutes, it soaked my right pant leg and right shoulder/arm and left water dripping down my leg inside my pants (!). These two pix (above) are looking north as the rain has mostly passed over me and is continuing north.

From the same spot as the first two pix, looking now eastish, I watched the moon rise over Temple Butte (promontory) and McKenna Peak (pyramid).

The moon was still barely visible when the light hit the passing rain and formed the prism, but while trying to decide between my phone and big camera, I think I missed it before it rose into the clouds (argh!).

With more dark clouds rising from the south and mustangs mostly far and scattered across the northern part of the basin, I decided to return another day. … (Note: It’s not a good idea to go into the basin if it’s going to rain. The road can get spectacularly bad when really, really, super wet.)

Wellllllll (a friend and a new friend will understand that heavily accented word 🙂 ) … when your gut tells you to turn around and make for the place where the rainbow will align with the pot of gold you know to be there (if you know, you know), be like Leroy Jethro Gibbs, and pay attention to your gut!

I stood in the sunshine along Disappointment Road while the second wave of rain passed from south to north across Spring Creek Basin (the rimrocks are Spring Creek Basin’s western boundary; the basin stretches away to the east in the northeasternish part of Disappointment Valley).

And the spectacularity JUST. GOT. BETTER.

End to end under the powerlines.

Temple Butte is visible again as the storm moves north.

This is NOT part of the original/above rainbows; it was a newly formed prism as the rain continued to pass and clear and the sun found space beneath the clouds above the western horizon. This stretch of Disappointment Road goes straight east.

After dark, we got yet another little wave of the good rain stuff. *Sigh of contentment*.

Maybe more overnight and in the morning. (Fingers and toes all crossed!)

I mean … RIGHT?! 🙂 Magic, folks. Pure magic. No artificial ingredients added. 🙂





Light show

30 09 2025

The mustangs don’t *always* cooperate when spectacular things are happening on the horizon. Posing really isn’t their jam (though they sometimes do it very well, indeed). However, although there are no mustangs in these pix, I decided they showed off the gorgeousity of Spring Creek Basin to such a degree that they stand on their own (and there *were* mustangs nearby; you just have to take my word for it!).

The rainbow Sunday evening was faint … and then it was BRIGHT. Never more than that little section, but wowza. Every strand of color was bright and clear and distinct:

That extreme brightness didn’t last very long. All I did when processing was to add a touch of sharpening. (I mean, really, how can you improve on that with a mere computer?!)

Then, last night, as I was leaving the basin, this interesting light-prism phenomenon, in nearly the same area of sky:

Mother Nature is booming in the high country with her annual aspen show, but she apparently didn’t want us in dry, brown Disappointment Valley to feel left out. 🙂

We are grateful!





Magic at sunset

29 09 2025

Soooooooooooooooo magical!

Weird distortion courtesy of the crack across my phone camera lens (boo!). Otherwise … beautiful!

Do you see the lingering rainbow? Subtle as sunset light. 🙂

Not-so-subtle sunset colors looking west!

And ending the day with a view back to the east/southeast.

Blessed. No other word for it.





Rainbow season.

13 09 2025

Photographers love stormy conditions. Is it any wonder?

Am I right?

A bit wider perspective.

Mustangs were around, but they were not as cooperative as a person could wish with that amazing background ever-changing. 🙂

Flash and his band were grazing from the still-sunny side of the bowl to the already-shady side of the bowl (what I call the series of open areas between ridges in the far northwest). I was uphill of them, which made it hard to also capture the very faint rainbow in the southeastern sky. And this was quite a bit later from the first two pix.

Gaia lingered longest (thanks, girl), but she mostly gave me butt shots (thanks, girl!). 🙂 This one shows more of the rain-mist behind the rainbow.

And a last image from nearly last light … just a hint of a prism in a couple of sections in the sky at right. I mean … stunning!

We’ve gotten a few little rain waves the last couple of days. “Rain” might be overstating things a bit, as they’ve been really more like 10- to 15-minute drizzles. The ground soaks up that moisture incredibly quickly, and it’s dry very soon afterward. But we’ll take it, and the night I took the above images, I found a pond with water. Actual water. 🙂 Joy!





Rainbow season?

11 09 2025

No rain, but it’s about time. We’ve had a long, hot, dry year, and we’re ready, Mother Nature.

Bring on the rain!!!!!

*****

Remembering the heartbreak of the nation today, 9/11.