Spring Creek Basin Mustangs

Chipeta also likes to try to blend in. 🙂

Her unsolvable problem is that, as the only pinto member of an otherwise all-grey band, she stands out.

Also, she’s a standout. 🙂

Sometimes (OK, all the time), you never know where you’ll find the mustangs when you drive into Spring Creek Basin. And even after all my years of driving into the basin, they sometimes (!) surprise me.

These horses are at the top of Spring Creek canyon, above the rimrocks. It’s not nearly the vertical wall on the other side, where it slopes into a little “bowl” of a hillside, so their approach is easy to fathom. And they must have had a nice breeze up there, keeping the descending gnats at bay, because they were up there for at least a couple of hours (before I arrived and after I left)! And the view – I can attest – is fabulous.

As seen from the road inside Spring Creek Basin’s western boundary, a few bands graze in the northwest hills above/beyond/north of Spring Creek canyon.

With water in places in the creek arroyo and good grazing above the canyon, it’s no wonder the bands were taking advantage of the location. (And I can attest that the views are spectacular *from* up there, too!)

There’s a bit more tail-swirling and -swishing these days as the days get longer and warmer. I’m sorry to say that gnats are making their appearance. In this case, wind is our friend to blow the little buggers away.

Our air is getting dusty again: dry conditions and spring winds.

Mariah doesn’t seem to mind as she chases the green and growing things.