Spring Creek Basin Mustangs

Big grey boy Skywalker grazes peacefully among summer’s grama grass, glowing in winter sunlight. Some days just have that indefinable sense that all is beautiful and right with the natural world.

Enough late-season vegetation still covered the basin when I took this photo that it’s hard (impossible) to see that the snow at Terra’s hooves was still mostly unbroken by melting fairly early that morning.

The snow is mostly gone now – except on some slopes and shaded ridges and arroyo walls – but it’s so wonderful how a simple dusting of the frozen white stuff transforms any landscape!

It seems counterintuitive, but napping in the sunshine on a sharply cold day with fresh snow at one’s feet feels oddly comfortable. It’s best, of course, if one wears a wooly coat or otherwise insulating layers (!).

And it’s ever so much better with a friend. 🙂 Piedra and Kestrel are true BFFs!

Because who doesn’t feel the urge to dash through new snow?!

It wasn’t a huge snowfall – maybe half to three-quarters of an inch – but it was enough to whiten our world for the first half of the day before much of it melted under the brilliant Colorado sunshine. 🙂 There’s still a nice little layer on slopes and ridges in the upper part of Spring Creek Basin and Disappointment Valley.

Already in the forecast, Friday and Sunday have chances for more white stuff. Winter is nigh!

Now and then Terra graces observers with her wild beauty in a relaxed way (not grazing or otherwise offering butt views to the camera!). Her band was napping and watching another small band a short distance away.

If the promontory in the background doesn’t look quite like Temple Butte, that’s because its not. It’s a cliff of Knife Edge in the middle-east area of Spring Creek Basin. It definitely made a nice background for lovely Terra!