That very red sky is caused by wildfire smoke, again, filtering through the horizon haze at sunset. Thankfully, not from fires very nearby but fires devastating to those fleeing and fighting. A man has been charged with first-degree arson in connection with the devastating fires in and around Spokane, Washington. Unfathomable.
Kestrel: beautiful, wise, wild. I wish we knew enough to learn all we can from her and mares like her.
Flash has just made the decision to continue down the hill to lead his band (including Juniper, behind him) to water in Spring Creek.
On these very hot days (the mercury reached at least 102F in Disappointment Valley recently), I’m so thankful that there’s water in Spring Creek Basin, and I’m even more thankful that the mustangs know where to find those sources!
Tenaz at sunset above Spring Creek canyon.
Wild boy in a wild land.
While the Ferris Fire is, for all intents and purposes, out, and mop-up teams and a Burned Area Emergency Response Team (including one of our own BLM’ers and the U.S. Forest Service wife of one of our previous BLM’ers) are continuing and starting their work in the area, our area (most of the drought-stricken West) is still prone to wildfires.
This article details “an ‘absolutely insane’ six weeks at the Durango Airtanker Base that supports firefighting efforts across the West,” to give you an idea of all the things that go into fighting fires from the air.
This article gives some insight into the terrible conditions that resulted in the deaths of Emily Barker, Nick Hutcherson, Sydney Watson and, most recently, Nathan Matthews while fighting the Gore and Knowles fires that merged into the Snyder Fire on the Utah/Colorado border.
Annnndddd, Friday, the Cross Canyon Fire started in far southwestern Dolores County. Watch Duty showed it at 140 acres as of Saturday and indicated that, with immediate attack, firefighters – including from Dove Creek Volunteer Fire Department members, who’d been on it from the start – it was expected to be out by late Saturday.
Stay vigilant, folks. The fire danger is not anywhere close to over.
Today marks Colorado’s official 150th birthday, “celebrated as the sesquicentennial of the Centennial State joining the Union in 1876.” (Interestingly, for this Aggie, also the year of the founding that October of Texas A&M University, known then as the Agricultural and Mechanical College of Texas. Yes, I know that has nothing to do with anything, but I *am* a Texas Aggie living in the Centennial State (and for much longer now than I lived in Texas).)
Sadly, today also marks the start of the roundup in Piceance-East Douglas Herd Management Area (needed but still incredibly sad that so many mustangs will be removed in the antiquated cycle of round-up-and-remove) and West Douglas Herd Area. More than 1,000 mustangs will be removed from these ranges, followed by nearly 250 more next month from Sand Wash Basin Herd Management Area. Please don’t make negative comments about this; it just needed to be noted. The advocates are intimately involved and working to ensure the safety and best treatment of those mustangs. Fertility-control programs hopefully will be stepped up, especially in Piceance-East Douglas, and I might have more information about that in the future.
In all the ways that Colorado’s statehood birthday is being celebrated, I haven’t seen anything about celebrating its mustangs, which, in my opinion, is a missed opportunity to uplift these remarkable animals and the giant roles they have played in this country as a whole, as well as the wilds of Colorado. So we’ll just have to do it ourselves. 🙂
I am thankful that we HAVE mustangs, still, in Colorado. And with hope and better management, they’ll be here another 150 years.
Temple. Gorgeous as a painting. The reality is pure magic.
Hot, hot, hot the next several days before we get some more rain starting to appear in the forecast.
Pretty Mysterium a few nights ago, watchful as her band grazed.
Hottttttttttttttttttttttttt out there. And it’s about to get hotter the next several days. We might be staring down 100s as August begins.
Apologies for the late post this morning; last night’s storms took out my electricity! Very glad of the rain … shown above making its way into Disappointment Valley southeast of southeastern Spring Creek Basin. Seneca really didn’t think she wanted to help show off the view and the rain, but she did an amazing job of it, of course. 🙂
The great thing about the rain is that it wasn’t even in the forecast, so it was a *very* pleasant (understatement) surprise!
Beautiful light on Maiku as he watches another band grazing up the slope. He and his band were napping; the other band was grazing. Very peaceful. At one point, the shadows of the horses on the little rise behind me were over my shoulder as I sat on the ground photographing Maiku, making me feel very surrounded by my loves.
We didn’t get rain that evening, but we got a nice little patter Sunday evening.
