These elk greeted me on the way out of Spring Creek Basin. If they look “hazy” or dim, that’s because of the blowing snow.
Mostly cows and last year’s calves, but one young bull was with them.
Mama and youngster check in with each other before they follow the group over the hill.
Here, I think they were watching some mustangs I couldn’t see because of a hill to my right.
Note that this was a snow wave after the earlier/overnight big snow (the 2 inches or so) had already mostly melted. What you see is starting to semi-stick again.
That wave didn’t last long … and neither did the semi-stuck snow. 🙂
It wasn’t until I got out there with Sancho and the bands that I realized how LUCKY Spring Creek Basin got with the snow. Lower Disappointment Valley (especially center and right background, which is sort of westish) either didn’t get snow or didn’t get snow that stuck … or maybe it was rain? (Spring Creek Basin is within Disappointment Valley.)
The sunshine came out while I was with the mustangs, but …
… in that far distance (western/southwestern Disappointment Valley, and the Dolores River canyon(s) is out there), another wave of snow was drifting across the landscape.
By the time I got back to my buggy after a two-mile round-trip hike, the eastern part of the basin was under beautiful sunshine, but the sky to the north/northwest/west/southwest was DARK. I didn’t go far heading out before I was back into the wind-driven snowstorm.
It was WET snow, and it was melting fast. By the end of the day (before then for a lot of areas), most of that snow had soaked right into the very desperate soil, which is a huge relief and blessing.
None of that snow is still there (as of the afternoon of the day I took that pic of Skywalker!), but it was decently wet snow, and so the ground is still damp to muddy in places (thankfully and finally). Almost none of the exceptionally little snow this winter has lasted past the day it fell, so I like to take advantage to show at least a few images, though it doesn’t match the current scene any longer!
The snow is gone (nearly, mostly; some persists on the shady north-facing sides of ridges and slopes, but even that is mostly melted), and we didn’t have more than an inch (and that’s *tops*).
So the above pic of Tenaz, glowing glamorously in the blowing snow (and yes, it was blowing hard again, but this time out of the southwest/west) is a moment in time, caught and then shortly after capture, gone with the soaking in of that white background to the super-thirsty soil.
A moment I was as happy to capture as I am to share. 🙂
All the horses had white tails (at least temporarily) yesterday while the wind delivered another dose of SNOW! And as you can see from the pic of Temple above, this time, it actually stuck (at least temporarily). 🙂
By 1:30, the sky was clearing from white to brilliant blue, the sun was returning to its super-shine, and the snow was well on its way to melting.
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.Â
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.)
Spring Creek Basin Mustangs 