My gosh, isn’t she gorgeous? Mariah in all her mustang-ness is a classic beauty.
(Moment of photo-geekiness: Do you love the snow bokeh in the background? Delicious.)
This post is dedicated to my friend Roy, who named Mariah when she was a baby. 🙂
Another visual puzzle for ya’ll. 🙂 Do you see the two wildlings?
Psst … lower right.
It’s a big, beautiful land, and the moisture is seeping in.
Beauty, yes. 🙂
Do you spot the spotted ponies? They’re in a line at lower center.
These pix were taken a couple of weeks ago – obviously, when we still had snow on the ground, and the cold temps to keep it there – when I was out in Spring Creek Basin, on snowshoes, with wild ponies. I remembered these images just recently and sifted through my cell phone’s gallery to find them for you.
Sometimes, Mother Nature’s beauty is in the very smallest items. We might miss it if we weren’t looking for a place to carefully kneel in the white stuff for a better perspective of the furry stuff(s). 🙂
Fuzzy ol’ Ty helps show off that promontory in the background.
Tesora helps show off another unnamed promontory, farther up the valley. Behind her is the shadowed ridge of Brumley Point, and above and beyond that is our previously unnamed promontory, now called Temple Butte in honor of Pati and David Temple, who advocated tirelessly for Spring Creek Basin’s mustangs (David still does, and Pati spreads her angel’s wings over our blessed basin).
The very last light lit up that promontory, and it was hard to balance its brightness with the already shadowed foreground – and mustangs. So that’s not snow; it’s very-bright sunshine spotlighting the golden rock of the promontory.
Temple Butte gleams golden in the last light of a “trying to snow” day while Brumley Peak has just a spot of light on its serrated flank.
Brumley Point is mostly within Spring Creek Basin Herd Management Area. The southeastern boundary fence climbs a lower ridge to the first wall of rimrock. Temple Butte is outside Spring Creek Basin but visible from almost anywhere in the basin (and far beyond). They’re both within McKenna Peak Wilderness Study Area, which also covers a fair bit of the southern, southeastern and eastern parts of the basin.
The mustangs showed up just a bit after I took these photos from the road. … They weren’t quite as cooperative in the last light of day as the steadfast mesas and buttes. 🙂
And the trails I ride are new
Even though I’ve made the circle many times before
For they change with every season
And with every shift of light
From the summit where the clouds fall to the sweet, valley floor.
~ from “The Circle” by Dave Stamey
Grey and brown are our colors of late. We’ve been waiting for this big snowstorm that has been in the forecast for days, but it hasn’t hit us yet. Meanwhile, we have plenty of moisture (aka mud). 🙂
And every now and then, a ray of light.
S’aka pauses for a pony nap on top of the world. Not a bad place to stop and smell the clean wind. 🙂
Worldwide, and on the home ranges of wild horses and burros, 2016 was a fairly tough year. It was a pretty darn good year in Spring Creek Basin, but I’ve heard a number of people say how glad they are to put 2016 behind them, and they hope 2017 will be better.
I count my blessings every day for this life I love, that I get to live among wild creatures in a stunningly wild place (which has its own human challenges). So in saying good-bye to one year and looking forward to the new, hopefully gratitude will remain my best attitude. With the horses reminding me every day how beautiful is this amazing natural, wild world, that doesn’t seem to be a resolution that will be at all difficult to keep. 🙂
Farewell, 2016!
