Spring Creek Basin Mustangs

The snow depth varies throughout Disappointment Valley in general and in Spring Creek Basin specifically. Six inches might be the *minimum*. I rolled in until my wheels had trouble rolling any farther through the deep snow. I did the arm test, with my fingertips on the ground through the snow, and the top of the snow was halfway up my forearm, which the ruler at home says is 11 inches!!!

The snow level in the pic above wasn’t 11 inches deep, and Tenaz and friends were browsing calmly among the northwest hills. When I left them, they were all napping, hips cocked and eyes closed against the glare of the pristine snow.

Several inches of snow? No worries! Just another day in the life of mustangs. 🙂

(Not to mention other wildlife; there were at least 50 elk on the upper north rim of Spring Creek canyon. We *know* it’s winter when the elk come to mingle. :))

With those you love, celebrate, today and all days.

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Breaking news! Disappointment Valley got about FOUR INCHES of snow yesterday (less or more, depending on elevation)!

This was no little wave, and there was nothing light and fluffy about it – wet, heavy, snow-wo/man-building snow!

A second, bigger, longer-lasting wave is coming today through Wednesday, says the forecasters. Then coooollllldddd!

… in all that white!

What a little pudge is Mr. Maiku! Bundled up and perfectly warm for little snowfalls.

Skywalker is almost camouflaged in all that white. … But isn’t it interesting how he also seems to stand out!

All that lovely snow is gone now (well, most of it, and especially in the scene seen here), but it’s too hard and too damaging to try to get in Spring Creek Basin in the mud, so for the next few days, at least, enjoy these scenes of winter white!

Corazon and his band were grazing when I first saw them up a hill in the northwestern area of the basin. By the time I trundled up to them, that ol’ Colorado sunshine was starting to melt the snow (and the trees’ roots were slurping it up thirstily!), and the horses were napping in the bright warmth.

If Punxsutawney Phil lived in Colorado, I imagine he’d see his shadow on most Groundhog Days (and the marmots at our Groundhog reservoir (a few thousand feet higher than Spring Creek Basin and snowed in) surely see theirs!). With his still-fuzzy coat, Corazon is not at all worried about six more weeks of winter … and we’re still hoping for more snow!

Our tan world got very white again yesterday morning! It was a snowfall of about an inch, and much of it melted during the day, that liquid goodness seeping into the soil – and into the catchment tanks. The last time I was at the first new catchment, water from the melting snow was gurgling noisily from the roof to the gutter and down the pipes into the tanks. What an absolutely MARVELOUS sound!

Tenaz may have been watching the clouds swirl around McKenna Peak and Temple Butte and the far eastern and southeastern ridges, but he was the star of the show to me.