Odin and Piedra browse while Kestrel looks back at a following bachelor (I didn’t know it when I took this pic, but there was another band farther away and out of sight over a hill; they showed up later).
This pic (and for at least a few days to come, though our snow is melting *rapidly* as I type this Friday) was taken the day after the big snowfall. I was amazed that there was still so much snow covering the ground and shadscale and sage and four-wing saltbush and snake weed and grasses!
Muddy, muddy, muddy underneath the snow. North-facing sides of arroyos were still snow-covered; south-facing sides were muddy ski slopes (vertical or almost nearly so)! Good luck getting up the sides unless you had a bit of an erosion channel to use as steps or enough snow to jam a foot in sideways – and get it to hold just long enough to step up with your other foot!
Fabulous, wonderful moisture. I hope this is a sign of a good winter to come.
* The snow wasn’t actually very fluffy; it was really rather wet. But the alliteration worked for the post title. 🙂
So THIS happened Wednesday! On top of the rain mud, the snow made conditions, um, muddIER. 🙂
These lovelies weren’t the only ones.
But wait! There’s more!
How many do you count? 🙂
As it turned out, though I spent a couple of hours in the basin – enough time for most of the snow (1 to 3 inches, depending on location) to melt! – I saw only ONE band of mustangs. They were farther than I wanted to hike in the snow and mud, so I looked in the far corners for another, closer band – without success. By the time I went back to the first band, they’d decided (anthropomorphism alert) they didn’t want to be leftovers and had disappeared. 🙂
I was just happy to see the snow and the mud and the one band and all the pronghorns (which have been very visible lately, though mostly a bit lower). We’re going to have mud for a while – especially with more rain/snow due Sunday!
La Sals beyond Disappointment Valley/Creek cottonwoods.
We had rain in the valley – to the tune of almost 0.80 inch total (way, way more than we got in all of September). To say I’m “grateful” is a vast, vast understatement. 🙂
Now THAT looks like autumn. 🙂
By the time I was out with Mariah and her band on Saturday, the snow was noticeably melting, and clouds were lowering over the peaks. Sunday had more rain and super sogginess, and if I could have seen the mountains for the heavy clouds, I bet they’d have shown pristine white caps again.
The sky – and rain/snow falling – was the star of the show yesterday afternoon.
One band was just leaving the water trough at the basin’s main/original water catchment, followed by another band. The aprons are visible at right (looks like a tennis court – those are the aprons that catch rain/snow). They deliver water via underground pipe to the big, green tank (slightly right of center). It doesn’t look that big from this distance, but it can hold 12,000 gallons. The dark “spot” in just about the center is a couple of horses drinking at the trough.
This very wide view from Chrome’s Point in the far western part of the basin encompasses the northeastern (far left), eastern and southeastern views of Spring Creek Basin. (The first two pix are within this wide view.)
Oh, wait, carry on. It didn’t make it actually into the valley from the southern ridges. (Argh!)
Buckeye and his family weren’t worried (by it coming or by it not actually reaching us). Of course. 🙂
While Denver and the Front Range of Colorado hog the snow (sorry about your “impossible driving conditions” as we continue to be super dry over here in, you know, the OTHER part(s) of the state), we’re hoping to get any bits of the dregs?! Pretty please?
Please pardon my pessimism and enjoy my gratitude that Mother Nature came through for Disappointment Valley and Spring Creek Basin (specifically). We got 2.5 inches (or more or less, depending on actual location) of the good, wet, white stuff Saturday night into Sunday morning!
It took a bit longer to melt this time than the half-inch we got last time, but by mid-afternoon, this, too, was reduced to ground-quenching mud. And that was perfectly fine. The wind continued … not as awfully as the day before but enough that it still tries to leach that desperately-needed moisture.
Sunshine on Maia with little floaty bits of semi-frozen wet stuff known in our neck of the woods currently as snowflakes. (Ha?!) Not only did the waves of “snow” not dampen the ground, it actually dried out throughout the day, despite the many waves of, uh, “snow.”
While walking through an arroyo in the far southern end of Spring Creek Basin the other day, I came upon these nifty little beauties:
These snow “wheels” really did roll right up as they rolled right down the arroyo walls!
The first pic is from one place, and the last two pix are the same spot. There were many such spots throughout the arroyo, and I promise that I didn’t have a hand in creating any of them! Their perfect coils must have had something to do with the moisture content of the snow that allowed them to roll so perfectly down the walls/slopes?
There’s always something wonderful to see in Spring Creek Basin!
As usual, it’s hard to believe that another year has come to an end and another is starting.
As usual, there’s been good news and bad. … Much of the time, it seems like bad news is all the news that is news.
We need to know what’s going on in the world – from our local communities to the wider global community – but the constant onslaught very often has the effect of hurting the heart (as an understatement). Wouldn’t it be crazy if good news so dominated the headlines that bad news was relegated to the “inside pages” – or not at all? A good kinda crazy, for sure.
With this blog, I strive (in part) to provide a positive counter to the negativity that’s so easily found. If you’re here, reading, you’re looking for that positivity, and I’m so glad you’ve found it with our Spring Creek Basin mustangs. 🙂 If you get to visit the basin for yourself, so much the better. There’s truth in the phrase that the outside of a horse is good for the inside of a … let’s say human.
What follows is one photo for each month of the past year. Some have been on the blog previously; others have not. All pix were taken in the month they represent. Onward.
January
While photographing Flash and some bachelor pals, snow started floating through the air while the sunshine illuminated every single flake. I mean, GORGEOUS! The bachelor boys are famous for mostly ignoring me, but that light and those flakes demanded photographic proof. Fortunately, Flash paused his grazing – and chewing – just long enough to look at his pals, and I snapped the shutter on a magical moment. The snow ended very soon after I did so – or maybe it was the light on the snow.
*****
February
In February, we welcomed a long-awaited addition: Hollywood’s and Shane’s son, Odin. He was at least a week old when I found him and just as cute and fuzzy and stout as I could have hoped. He is growing so well and is as cute and stout – and fuzzy, again! – as can be! Hollywood no longer has his band, but his legacy continues in his son. This is still one of my very favorite pix of Odin and Shane.
*****
March
I couldn’t have been more thrilled when Dundee, one of the three introduced mares from Sand Wash Basin, had her very big first colt by Buckeye: Ranger. A couple of weeks later, Aiyanna delivered her delicate little filly – also by Buckeye – Bia. Unfortunately, we lost Ranger at about a month and a half old to unknown circumstances. Bia continues to do very well and is growing into a very lovely filly. She’s the spitting image of her mama – though she’s bay and mama is dun. She is adored by her entire band.
*****
April
As I remember, we had a nice, lingering spring. As spring was springing, love was in the air. Above, one of our young(ish) stallions, Zeb, was flirting with one of his mares. Really, who can resist his handsomeness or the flirty swish of his tail?!
*****
May
With the decent winter, we had a nice wildflower season, but it sure took its sweet time in arriving (or so I thought at the time, being, as usual, impatient). I visited my parents for Mother’s Day and left Disappointment Valley still brown and drab. When I returned, holy green! And then came the wildflowers. And once again, Flash proved a fabulous model among the larkspur (it was a bad larkspur year for the cattle folk), globemallow, wild onion and other lovelies. And the grass, of course. Green is my favorite color. 🙂
*****
June
That light! That grass! Those pinto girls! I saw Reya’s band only rarely this year, but they make every visit worthwhile. Mama and daughter Chuska: lookalike girls!
*****
July
That. LIGHT! Terra and her stallion, Venture, enjoyed a quiet moment during the height of summer. I think he adores her, and I think this moment in time illustrates that perfectly.
*****
August
Oh, this was another of those beautiful evenings in Spring Creek Basin. Buckeye’s band was napping on a hillside in an area that wasn’t usual for them. Another band was grazing down in a little cove among the hills. I walked up to take advantage of the view, then waited. Baby Bia had been napping between her auntie Rowan and mama Aiyanna. My waiting paid off when Bia ducked under mama’s neck on her way to nurse, and Aiyanna gave her a quick little casual “hug” as she did. Click went the shutter on one of those moments you never forget.
*****
September
On a stormy evening that didn’t bring rain (to us), Buckeye was guarding his band from a nearby band on the flanks of Filly Peak. (He appears to be napping, but he was alert, I assure you.) His band is to my left – and they really were napping, secure in his watchfulness. Beyond him is his mother, Winona. Her band was mostly out of sight in a little low place between here and there. The photo for this month was a tossup between this one and another photo from that same evening. Quiet, peaceful, lovely.
*****
October
Young stallion Cheveyo was in just the right place at just the right time for the very low sun to highlight him against the far, shadowed, hill and turn the foreground grasses to dancing flames of light. I’ve said it before, but it bears repeating: I adore backlighting!
*****
November
This was the first snowfall of the season, and I was happy to find Remy’s band grazing in the western part of the basin. The sun was flirting with the clouds. A great wave of light would sweep across Disappointment Valley, followed quickly by the greyer light – the kind of light that keeps photographers hopping (and hoping). Light snow also was falling and stopping and drifting and stopping and floating and stopping. A small band of young bachelors was nearby, but they weren’t too interested in Remy’s girls. Remy took his band to water in Spring Creek canyon (the rimrocks are seen in the background), and I called it a (beautiful) day.
*****
December
Our Hollywood, beloved and storied elder stallion, rounds out the year. This was the second snowfall of the season (and our last to date, as it happens). The snow was a little deeper, and it stayed pristine a little longer, than the first. The day was glorious for a hike, and that’s how I found Hollywood – originally drinking at a nearby pond. Here, he’d walked away from the pond before he stopped for a nap. As hard as it is to see the aging process at work on him, and missing his loyal mares, it’s always good to see this wonderful wild stallion.
*****
Bonus
Taken from very far away, I love all the layers in this image of Buckeye’s band – with prince’s plume! – and Tenaz and the band he escorts. A dear friend was with me at the time, and the enjoyment was doubled to have her along for the visit.
*****
Happy New Year’s Eve, everyone! Best wishes to you all for a happy, healthy and positive 2024!
Snow invading Spring Creek Basin from the northwest doesn’t seem to phase Temple. If the mustangs are in any way discouraged by the ongoing winter-like weather, they don’t show it. Life goes on, and one day – soon, really – spring will be here!
And that’s no April Fool’s joke (though more snow apparently is coming!)!
Spring Creek Basin Mustangs 