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.)
Odin. Odalicious. Oh-delicious!
Get it? 🙂
What a handsome youngster.
Kestrel is ready for the snow, but she’s giving me a look that seems to wonder whether *I* am ready for the snow. In fairness, she lives there, but I had a bit of a distance to cover to get out to the main county road.
This was a few days ago, when I was out with Terra’s family. It had snowed a bit over the basin early that morning, but as you can see in the background, the “big” snow that evening was coming.
As I mentioned in the post with Cassidy Rain, it wasn’t more than about half an inch total, but it sure looked promising when it was incoming!
The snow is gone now (mostly), but it got cold, making for gorgeous, clear night skies under the waning moon and sparkling stars.
A little bit of snow, and Temple and Madison thought it was a good excuse to RUN! 🙂
The above pic was shortly after I got into Spring Creek Basin. By the time I was leaving, it was snowing, and the snow was sticking, and the landscape was all white. I doubt it was even a full inch, but this “winter,” we’ll take all the white stuff Ma Nature is willing to send us!
Spring Creek Basin Mustangs 