The above pic of Winona looking slightly muddy and very peaceful is the day after the day of windblown snow (also known as yesterday). Yeah. That’s about how much snow actually landed (yes, I know it’s very brown, and most of the mud was already dry or drying, thanks to the sunshine and less but not gone breeze). We’re looking northwestish across the rimrocks of Spring Creek Basin’s canyon, across lower Disappointment Valley and out to our horizon of Utah’s La Sal Mountains … looking here like they were anticipating this morning’s snow (? that’s a hopeful statement as I’m typing this Thursday night).
Behind me is Flat Top, and there were patches of snow on its sides and base, contributing moisture to the soil as it melted. So that was nice.
And, really, how ’bout that view? I dunno about you, but Winona makes it perfect. 🙂
Unfortunately, that snow was carried horizontally by super strong winds from the south (the south!). With any hope, the snow ended up in Little Book Cliffs, Piceance-East Douglas and/or Sand Wash Basin, all pretty much nearly north of us.
Fortunately, we did get some amount of moisture, as evidenced by the mud at the end of the day. 🙂
Shortly after I took the above pic, from Chrome’s Point looking eastish, the snow waves renewed, and visibility was nearly nil to pretty much nil. No ponies visible. Hopefully they were smarter than the human and were finding shelter in low places.
*****
As I was battening the hatches for the coming, clearing, very cold night, I happened to spot something in the – did I say clearing? – western sky above the horizon of the near western ridge that stopped me in my muddy tracks:
See the white spot? I thought it was a plane until it didn’t move.
Google says this:
On the evening of February 18, 2026, a thin, setting crescent moon appears in the west near the planet
Mercury. A “planetary parade” in the western sky after sunset also features Saturn (slightly above the pair), Venus (very low on the horizon), and potentially Neptune (requiring a telescope).
Mercury: Located very close to the crescent moon, making it easy to spot in the evening twilight.
Saturn: Positioned higher than the moon and Mercury, forming a prominent western grouping.
Venus: Low on the western horizon, appearing very bright.
Neptune: Situated near Saturn, best viewed with binoculars or a telescope.
The best time for viewing is shortly after sunset on February 18, 2026, when these celestial bodies are visible together, note the IFLScience and The Planetary Society.
Cool, right? So the bright dot must be Mercury? Do you see the very faint little white dot nearly straight above the bright dot but about halfway across from the moon (directly across from the right-side point of the crescent)? It’s not “higher than the moon” … is that Saturn? I think I was too low to see Venus (the moon and planet weren’t high above my “horizon” when I saw them, but my horizon is from down in a draw, and the far horizon also is a ridge, so I’m never sure whether “the horizon” is every-ol’-body’s horizon or particular to people with flat horizons).
This was very nearly before the moon and friends dropped below my nearby horizon (and before it was covered by tatters of clearing clouds). But it might be easier in this pic to see the tiny white dot above the brighter white dot.
What a cool sighting! It almost makes up for not seeing any mesteños in the blowing snow earlier in the day. (A night-sky photographer, I most definitely am not!)
We got rain. 🙂 Don’t get squeamish about Friday the 13th; that was our LUCKY day in Southwest Colorado!
Valentine’s Day morning: Clouds clearing from the peak of McKenna and the upper butte of Temple. The snow on the left/north-facing side of McKenna Peak is fresh (and no longer there after the clouds cleared to reveal a completely clear Colorado sky).
Warm, damp ground + moisture = rising steam and lingering cloud banks. In laywoman’s terms: gorgeous.
A few miles of zooming and a hike of a couple of miles and a different part of the basin later: Seneca and her band greeted me. That’s Brumley Point behind her; McKenna Peak and Temple Butte are just to the left. They were still holding *some* clouds, but you can see the sunshine is already defeating the clouds handily.
More moisture coming this coming week? Everything is crossed, and hopes are high for even a little bit more rain or – super hopefully – some snow.
Let’s end the run of snow pix (while patches exist, the snow is pretty much gone now) with this fun one of Madison slaking her thirst by eating handy snow on a bank from down in a shallow arroyo.
Another benefit of the snow: The mustangs don’t have to travel to find water; it’s right at their hooves.
Seneca’s band had gone to water, and as their way to water doubled as my way back to my buggy, I moseyed along with them.
The sky was clearing to the northwest, but the clouds were still patchy and heavy enough in the western and southwestern and southern sky to block most of the late sunlight when I took this pic of Seneca right above the evaporation cover of the water-catchment trough. Temple Butte in the background was catching some of the gorgeous light that *was* breaking through.
And just a few/several minutes later (less than 10 minutes later from my image files’ info), from down the hill and back at my buggy … the above scene. The sun found a last-minute sneak-peak hole in the clouds to light up the lower slopes of Temple Butte. Just … kinda … wow. 🙂
“Why do you keep going back?” I sometimes get asked. … Really? 🙂 Because it’s never, ever, ever the same. Always, heart-liftingly, beautiful.
(And the same note: While there’s still a little, very patchy snow out there, it’s way melted from the images captured above.)
Again, it’s not nearly still that snowy, but you’ll get some snowy pix because I took a lot, and I like to remember how it looked when the world was (mostly) white. 🙂
Sancho has his super-cute winter mustachio again, and I SO want to get a closeup pic of it. It’s a goal.
Meanwhile, he was looking warm and cozy in his winter fuzzies while catching up to the band. Not far to the left was a whole band of south-facing hills/ridges – bare of snow. Some day soon, hopefully it will snow again.
The snow Saturday morning lured me into Spring Creek Basin twice that day. The first time was shortly after sunrise, and while the mustangs were frustratingly far from any accessible areas, the pronghorns were fascinatingly cooperative! While that sort of looks like a giant cave opening behind them, that’s the north rim of Spring Creek canyon (viewed from the southeastish). The pic of Chipeta yesterday was taken much later in the day; compare the melting that had been at work.
Pronghorns (not actually antelope) are North America’s fastest land mammals. Here, they were just moseying. When they *really* run, they are FAST!
They’re more sprinters than marathon runners … and thankfully for me and my camera, they’re wonderfully curious. 🙂
(Note that the landscape doesn’t look like that AT ALL by this morning (or even by yesterday morning). It was cold (high of 34F?), but in Colorado, sunlight means even more than temperature.)
Who better than a pinto girl to show off our snow … and how much had already melted by late afternoon?
Thanks, Chipeta. We appreciate your lovely cooperation!
Fascinating mix of snow on the ground and still on some tree branches while south-facing slopes have nearly all slurped up all that snowy-good moisture (despite the lack of sunshine most of the day). We got maybe an inch … 2 max. It was melting while it was falling. Eh. We’re desperate for ANY moisture. I think the temp hit 40F. … The forecasters claim this morning’s low temp will be 7 or thereabouts. Yeesh. But it’ll keep some of that snow on the ground and soaking in slowly, under another full-blue Colorado sky.
Miss Bia, looking lovely in the layers and snow. 🙂
(Note: At this point, the snow has been gone for several days, but I wanted to post a few mustang images taking advantage of the little snow we had! After this morning, though, the blog will return to current conditions, which is to say, NO snow.)
Spring Creek Basin Mustangs 