Spring Creek Basin Mustangs

… is 66 years old today. 🙂

He’s feisty and fussy, and he likes things just so (thanks for passing that on to me, Dad). And without knowing much about you, he’d give more than his shirt to take care of you if you’re in trouble.

He wasn’t born in Texas, but he’s about as Texan as a non-native can get. He and my mom run a small ranch, and they’re the hardest working people I know – still. If my dad cusses a bit when the tractor blows a tire or the rake breaks a tine, he can be forgiven.

He was an Army officer, and he’s a patriot and my hero. Every man, I compare to him, and most fall short.

I love you, Dad. Happy birthday. 🙂

Only Spring Creek Basin, Disappointment Valley, Western Slope, Colorado, United States of America, planet EARTH.

We are blessed to know our wild things, to have some places yet for them to live, wild. How can we do anything but protect those places and those that live there?

Today carried an 80 percent chance of rain. It looked promising. Most afternoons now bring promising clouds.

I think about eight drops hit the ground. Not really the kind of numbers I was hoping to see or feel!

In good news, at least five ponds filled from the recent big rain event up the valley and on the eastern side of the basin.

Houdini and Maia run with the wind on a cool day in Spring Creek Basin.

It was *trying* to rain. Two big curtains of rain already had passed, and a third was forming. Some ground was damp the first time I walked over it … but dry on second passing. I think parts of the basin other than where we/I were/was got a nice shower. Briefly, the wind was out of the north, and it was cool and divine.

Stunning stallion, stunning light. A shining light in a sometimes-not-so-great world.

Pretty Gaia and her dark daughter, Cassidy Rain, on a hot ‘n dusty day in Spring Creek Basin.

In the bike-repair business, many great customer stories start off like this: “I was just riding along when …” Having worked at a bike shop, I heard plenty of those stories. As a bike rider, I told plenty of those stories.

So the Spring Creek Basin version goes like this: I was just sitting on a rock under a tree in the shade, hiding from the hot, hot, HOT sunshine, when the magic of the wild decided I was in the right place, and it was the right time. Whew.

Although it looks like handsome Tenaz is waving hello, his attention is all on Hayden, out of the frame to the left. 🙂

No spaghetti necessary. 🙂 Storm grazes with two of his lovely ladies, Gaia and Cassidy Rain, on a hot, hot afternoon.

Mariah at sunset in a field of amber-waving grain. She’s just kissed with a little light at the very end of the day.