Flooding befores and afters, phase 3!

6 11 2026

I think this might be the last of these types of pix; they’re a little harder to compile than I thought they’d be when I had the great idea (and I think it WAS a pretty good idea!). Well, not actually *hard* as just taking a fair bit of time. 🙂

These before-and-after pix are going to be of down-valley Disappointment Creek and Spring Creek where it runs under Disappointment Road north of the aforementioned spot on Disappointment Creek that also runs under the road. These “down-valley” creek sections refer to what’s locally known as the Daddy Williams bridge (?) over Disappointment Creek, just south of Road K20E (the road that goes from Disappointment Road (also called 19Q on the San Miguel County side)), and north of Road K20E where Spring Creek runs under Disappointment Road. Give or take, Spring Creek runs under the road about three miles (I’m going by the distance of K20E between 19Q and the western Spring Creek Basin boundary) outside/west of Spring Creek Basin. (Reminder, Spring Creek is not an abbreviation of Spring Creek Basin, which is not abbreviate-able; Spring Creek and its tributary arroyos drain Spring Creek Basin … never so obviously as times like these!)

I’m sure that if you’re not local and/or have never been here, that’s just about as clear as our muddy creek water. The biggest takeaway is that these pix of the flooding at Disappointment Creek are at a different bridge from the earlier pix – downstream and west of those pix.

(I finally got into Spring Creek Basin yesterday afternoon/evening, but I got distracted and didn’t actually make it to even the first Spring Creek crossing. 🙂 I’ll get there … but also, it is MUDDY, and there has been significant road erosion. … The hunters are coming into the valley, of course, but those folks have been uncharacteristically cautious about K20E (thankfully). Third rifle season (the busiest/worst) starts Saturday and runs through the following Sunday.)

Let’s talk water. Well, I’ll show; you gasp appropriately. 🙂

Here we are Oct. 23 at the Daddy Williams bridge looking upstream/east (you can see Temple Butte just about dead center in the way, way background). This is a fairly narrow creek bed at this point. Other than knowing you’re crossing a bridge, it’s easy to drive right across and not realize there’s water flowing, even when it’s flowing normally (in the spring, say). To jog your memories (and mine), the first big rains started Wednesday, Oct. 21 and continued through Thursday, Oct. 22; the above was taken Oct. 23 (for various reasons, I went up-valley first (Oct. 22) and didn’t make it down-valley to this point and Spring Creek until the 23rd).

And on the other side of the bridge, looking downstream/west.

Now we jump to Nov. 2, the day after the all-day rain Nov. 1 and into the morning of Nov. 2. Apparently, with the creek “down” after Oct. 26, I didn’t think it warranted any more pix there. The creek’s flow HAD dropped significantly between that rain and this rain. The above is looking at the same side of the creek as two pix above: This is the upstream side, but I’m at the south end of the bridge where earlier, I was at the north side looking southish. But surely you see the MORE, the GREATER amount of water?? The lower right corner of the pic shows a fence corner; you can see about a foot of two of the corner H-brace posts. When Larry W had passed this spot on his way up-valley earlier that morning, before I talked to him, he said there was only about 6 inches of the posts showing, so the water level was already down a bit at this point.

The *usual* middle of the creek flows under the bridge section farthest from me; the water was not super far below the bottom of the bridge. A neighbor said that farther downstream, the water had actually flowed over another bridge.

Just another wide view, still looking upstream. … Lake Disappointment looked like a gentle pond compared to this complete overflow of Disappointment Creek’s banks here.

And another view; the fence corner at lower right might be a bit more visible in this image. This area is NOT usually under water … like, AT ALL.

And now on the west side of the bridge, looking west/downstream.

I will admit that standing there, I kinda lost track of where the actual creek bed was.

The sheer volume of water was … jaw-dropping and gobsmacking. And while the first pix were after two days of rain (and the level was down by the time I got there to see it), these pix, from Nov. 2, were after about 24 hours of rain. Crazy, crazy.

Now let’s head north/down-valley to the Spring Creek bridge:

And back to Oct. 23: This is Spring Creek, flowing toward us out of Spring Creek Basin; Filly Peak and Temple Butte are at far right … and you can see the rimrocks that form the basin’s western boundary. Look along the far bank of the creek. See how far the water level had come down from high flow? By step-measurement (on the bridge), I figured it was about 15 feet from the edge of the current water flow to the high-water mark.

Looking way back east upstream to Spring Creek canyon where all the water collected in all the arroyos in Spring Creek Basin LEAVES Spring Creek Basin. The dark ridge is the basin’s northeastish boundary; the ridge that meets the sky is outside/beyond the basin. You can also see the way the water carves the bed of the creek in this pic; that’s all waterflow, but the main channel is to the left, while a shallower layer of water comes straight toward us over a bit of a “beach.”

And rolling on away west toward its confluence with Disappointment Creek. The creek bed for Spring Creek here is much wider than that of Disappointment Creek … and I’m sure the water wasn’t nearly as deep because it’s so broad (also, the watershed is much more limited than what feeds Disappointment Creek).

The view of Spring Creek upstream on Oct. 26.

The downstream view.

Now heading back up-valley, still Oct. 26:

Looking east/southeast at Road K20E from Disappointment Road/19Q. … On the left side, closest to us, the owner of those ruts was a couple of inches from the ditch (which is at least a foot deep). Beyond that? Yeah, they went into the ditch. I’m not sure whether those tracks/ruts were going east or coming west, but good grief. … They get worse for the first mile or so. Oh yeah, and at least one vehicle (there had to be at least two) had chains on its tires. K20E is NOT an all-weather gravel road like Disappointment Road; it’s basically a dirt path through the greasewood. It. Is. A. MESS. When. Wet. … Somebody had some “fun”; I’ll be wobbling through those ruts for the foreseeable future.

Cutie. I found this little critter under the right side of the above cattle guard. That’s water beyond it, reflecting the cattle-guard pipes and the sky above.

Now fast-forward to Nov. 2, after the one-day rain:

Yikes. Lemme tell you, when the mud in Disappointment Valley looks like that, you do NOT want to test it. That’s what I think of as “pillowy” mud. I’m sure there’s some technical term, but it is soft, it is deep, and it will suck your tires into a quagmire you will be hard pressed to get out of (without help; with help, heaven help your helper). See the line of cottonwoods at left? The down-valley Disappointment Creek bridge – aka the Daddy Williams bridge – is about 100 yards to my right. As in a couple of pix above, I am standing on Disappointment Road/19Q looking east/southeast at the start (or end) of Road K20E toward Spring Creek Basin; you can see McKenna Peak and Brumley Point in the far distance, but Temple Butte has its head in the clouds (heh).

I think water overflowed Road K20E, and if you look at the standing water at left, I think that’s where a good bit of it came from, though there was also water to the right, between the road and Disappointment Creek. That standing water extends far north on the east side of Disappointment Road – still, now, Nov. 6.

See the water at lower left? That’s part of the water from the pic above. Spring Creek Basin beyond the rimrocks in the background. As I was driving north, I scared up three mallard ducks, if you can believe it! I don’t know what kind of birds were in the flock, but you can see the ducks in the center.

Lake Disappointment may have to shift locations; I still haven’t seen ducks on that “body” of water. 🙂

And on that uplifting note, I’m going to end the post here, the flooding having been pretty well documented at this part of the valley now, as well as farther up-valley.

But … in honor of only my second visit to the interior of Spring Creek Basin in … ugh, I don’t wanna think about it, but WEEKS! … If you have read this far, thank you, and here are a few more, from last evening:

Ponies. 🙂 You’ll think I’m crazy (I am), but I have *missed* them terribly. The landscape doesn’t look particularly green in this direction, but I’ll tell you, in some other directions, the green is nearly electric. Note the snow, still up high-ish, at far right.

Even Mother Nature celebrated my return to Spring Creek Basin! OK, OK, maybe not, but I was sure happy to see her celebrating another spin of the planet as another day headed toward another night. 🙂

Laaaaaaaaaast light on Temple Butte.

Snow once again on Utah’s La Sal Mountains, far beyond Spring Creek Basin and Spring Creek canyon. … And now you know where Spring Creek runs and what it looks like from the outside looking … toward Spring Creek Basin. 🙂

Thanks for coming along. I’m glad to share the journey(s) with ya’ll.


Comments : 10 Comments »

Categories : Autumn, Colorado, Cottonwood trees, Disappointment Creek, Disappointment Valley, La Sal Mountains, McKenna Peak, Rain, Spring Creek, Spring Creek Basin Herd Management Area, Spring Creek Basin mustangs, Spring Creek canyon, Sundogs, Temple Butte, Water

Flooding befores and afters, phase 2

5 11 2026

Let’s get back to it! There’s too much to do to be editing pix. I’d rather be out taking them … but the more I take, the more I want to share!

Yesterday in the post, I had made my way up-valley and shared what the erosion spot at Lake Disappointment looked like pre-fix, post-fix and post-more rain (!). More kudos go out to Denny and the San Miguel County crew; Denny at least was out with the grader. I don’t have a *current* post-yesterday’s fix, but I may slip that in at a later point. If you can believe it, more rain is due as I’m drafting this Wednesday afternoon.

I had gotten to a point overlooking a very flooded stretch of Disappointment Creek and was marveling at the astounding amount of water rampaging through the willows and tamarisk and cottonwoods, including adjacent areas that don’t usually carry regular creek water. Again, words like “regular” and “normal” are just out the window currently, let alone the last many years.

So let’s pick it up at the bridge over Disappointment Creek just below and west of the point where the southwestern corner of Spring Creek Basin meets Disappointment Road.

This is looking at downstream-rolling (running to the left) Disappointment Creek on Thursday, Oct. 22. The treed hill at farthest right and the ridge at far left are southwestern Spring Creek Basin. Foreground is private land.

From the south side of the same bridge, looking upstream at the creek water barreling toward us and under the bridge. The land on this side is BLM but not part of Spring Creek Basin.

By Monday, Oct. 26, this was the view looking downstream. The green cottonwood in the middle of the water two pix above is the one at right.

By Monday, Nov. 2, after a full day of rain, Disappointment Creek was swollen again. This was the same day as the panorama view in yesterday’s post – completely over any and all banks.

And the view looking upstream from the other side of that bridge. There’s a bend there, and there’s another bend upstream of it, so when the water hits that bend under the old pipe (from the irrigation-ditch days), the water was absolutely boiling. It’s hard to tell, but the flooding was more widespread this day than the first pix of this area, though I didn’t capture it very well with these pix.

And by the next day, Tuesday, Nov. 3, the water had dropped significantly again.

Hey, look at me, out in the middle of the muddy-water creek! Ha. That brown around the cottonwood is just mud again.

And up-valley we go.

On the way, still Nov. 3, I don’t think I’ve shown this view in any of these posts. Lone Cone, 12,618 feet, is the snow-covered peak in the distance. Brumley Point is the broad-based, flattish topped hill in the middle ground. Temple Butte, of course, is the promontory behind it. I’m on Disappointment road looking … I guess this is more eastish than anything … and on the other side of the fence is Spring Creek Basin. Brumley Point is on the basin’s southeastern boundary.

I’ve shared this view before. Note the snow in the pines atop the ridges on either side of Temple Butte. When I talked to Larry W, the Dolores County road-maintenance guy, he said that on Monday, Nov. 2, there was about 3 inches of snow at the T where Disappointment Road meets Dolores-Norwood Road. That’s only another 14 or so (?) miles up-valley from this point. But it’s why we say UP-valley is southeast: The elevation rises to the south/southeast/east in this neck of the high-desert-to-mountainous region.

In this case, the above pic is the “before” to the “after” above this one. This was Nov. 2, just a couple of hours after the rain stopped. The clouds were still heavy over parts of Disappointment Valley – including the eastern/northeastern ridges. Temple Butte is under that cloud. Note the snow at sort of mid-right. Inside the fence is Spring Creek Basin. Black Snag Road (and Disappointment Creek) is behind me to the south.

Now that we’re there, let’s check out the rise and fall of Disappointment Creek over Black Snag Road (nope, it’s still not there, no matter the water level).

And back to Oct. 22. This is Black Snag Road; the creek is ahead of me, and Disappointment Road is behind me. This is before Dolores County closed the road. (I think Mother Nature did rather a good job of closing the road (uh, “road”) at the creek crossing, whether the road was muddy, as pictured, or dry.)

This was my first view of Disappointment Creek there, and I was amazed then (Oct. 22).

By Oct. 26, the county had closed the road (or at least put up the sign), but people were still checking it out. None of those tire tracks are mine; I wisely parked at Disappointment Road and walked the 100 or so yards to the creek.

The water level was down to peaceful levels, and plenty of rocks of all sizes were exposed – right in the middle of where the road used to be. Upstream is behind me to the left, and downstream is on to the right.

Oct. 31 – Halloween. People were attempting to cross below the old road. Directly across the water is a great slab of bedrock before the dirt of the road goes uphill to the right.

It rained all day Nov. 1 and into the morning of Nov. 2.

I was awed by the creek in various places before I even got to Black Snag Road, but for the sake of simplicity (and photo-editing), I’m going to stick to the point where Disappointment Creek crosses what used to be (and will be again) Black Snag Road.

The morning of Nov. 2, after the steady, daylong rain. Where are all those rocks? Under all that water. This was more water than the previous flooding.

Nov. 3: Ah, right, there are the rocks. If you think they’re different rocks and/or moved, you’re right. Such is the power of flooding water. Notice the debris on the far side; that was high water.

Two more pix because I love this cottonwood tree:

Nov. 2: Rollin’ like a river. This is just upstream of the crossing formerly known as Black Snag Road. 🙂

And Nov. 3. Note the snow on the mountain in the far distance.

Disappointment Valley got another brief rainstorm (lightning, yes; thunder, yes) yesterday. No more super flooding. I’d like to show ya’ll some before/after pix of Spring Creek rolling under Disappointment Road down-valley, but my brain is tired, so that’ll be a phase 3 post. I’ve been to the interior of Spring Creek Basin to see and cross Spring Creek just once recently (in the last two weeks?!), and it wasn’t much changed except for a LOT more rock at the approach (southish side). I’m guessing it will be much more changed by the time I’m able to get in next … and I can’t wait to see the mesteños! I’m going through withdrawals!

We have needed this moisture all year (at least). It’s a little rough getting it all at once, but I am nothing if not GRATEFUL. It hopefully will put us in a little better situation than before the rains.

We didn’t have the damage of many, many other places in the Four Corners region (neither do we have the population). After 2 historic floods, southwestern Colorado now assessing damage.


Comments : 10 Comments »

Categories : Autumn, Brumley Point, Colorado, Cottonwood trees, Disappointment Creek, Disappointment Valley, La Sal Mountains, McKenna Peak, Rain, Spring Creek, Spring Creek Basin Herd Management Area, Spring Creek canyon, Temple Butte, Water

Flooding befores and afters, phase 1

4 11 2026

Grab a cuppa (of your favorite beverage) and settle in; this is going to be another photo-heavy post.

By now, it seems impossible that anyone could NOT know about the flooding in the Southwest/Four Corners region. Most of southern Colorado, it seems, has been affected, from the southwestern-most corner all the way to southern (?) San Louis Valley. All of the Four Corners states have been inundated to varying degrees with absolutely gallons and acre-feet and massive cubic-meters-per-second water from rain. I think we’ve been through hurricanes Polo and Rachel and are up to Trudy? Including the four days of rain a week ago, Sunday’s all-day rain added enough to give us about 5 inches in this part of Disappointment Valley. I’m sure people think I’m being evasive when they ask about our “normal” rainfall and I just can’t answer. Nothing is normal anymore. I started coming to Disappointment Valley 24 years ago, and I’m now coming to the close of my 15th year of living here. I don’t often (OK, ever) say that on the blog, but if you haven’t figure it out by now … I live here. 🙂

Damage in various places has been extreme: homes destroyed, highways to forest roads damaged to gone, bridges damaged and gone. You can read about it and hear about it, but SEEING it brings it home. This Colorado Sun article includes several video clips from people showing their views of the flooding in their towns and neighborhoods. That kind of water and flood-related damage makes the flooding in Disappointment Valley look tame. Everything is relative, eh? We didn’t lose any bridges (that I know of), but apparently, there are a couple of Disappointment Creek culverts that are either somewhere between Black Snag Road and the Dolores River … or already washed down the Dolores. (Wouldn’t it be fun to know where they ended up?!)

Let me back up a bit to provide some context. After the rain (well, the aftermath) that I documented in photos here previously last week, resulting in 3.66 inches, it rained all day this past Sunday until almost 8 a.m. Monday. That gave us another 1.39 inches. More rain on top of already-saturated soil … and every creek bed and arroyo and ditch and crack started carrying water. If the ground was “flat” in an area, ponds formed. Lake Disappointment formed again. It flowed over the road again. Sorry, Denny and county guys: It eroded the north side of the road again, just a couple of days after they fixed it (!). I talked to Larry (county to the south) twice in the last two days; he was out checking. Not much they can do yet while the roads are so wet.

Tuesday, water is STILL running, still standing, still everywhere. Even in pictures, I don’t know quite how to convey just how much water is still running through Disappointment Valley.

I went up and down Disappointment Road on Monday, taking about a billion pix (OK, 441). Tuesday morning, I went back down and up the valley. Because I had no time to do anything about those pix last night when I finally returned to the house, I thought I might use this post do do a bit of before (Monday, hours-post-rain-and-flooding) and after (Tuesday morning in the sunshine). So where that works, I’ll do that.

Now … where to start?

Let’s start with the erosion spot that started last week with THAT rain. You’ll remember that Denny and drivers for San Miguel County had been checking that for a few days, then came in with 10-plus dump-truck loads of material to fill it and pack it. At that point, Lake Disappointment (that’s a joke, by the way) had dwindled to Disappointment Pond … and then to just a puddle (which is still saying something as normally, of course, there’s not a spot of water there).

This above was Thursday, Oct. 22, between rain waves. Lake Disappointment, at left/south, was still trickling water across the road to the north side, which was starting to erode.

This was Sunday, Oct. 25, as the fog was clearing. Lake Disappointment had receded and was no longer trickling water over the road, but the erosion cut was encroaching even more into the road.

Wednesday, Oct. 28, Denny was working the front-end loader after at least 10 loads of “pit run” (big rocks mixed with dirt).

By the time I took this pic Saturday, Oct. 31, the road was looking great. Not only fixed but with more “pit run” with smaller, 3-inch rocks in the dirt to raise the level of the road.

Lake Disappointment, to the right/south of the pic above this one, was down to a bit of a puddle and a lotta mud.

And then it rained from 7:30 a.m. Sunday, Nov. 1, to almost 8 a.m. Monday, Nov. 2.

Uh oh. Lake Disappointment refilled overnight (and through the previous day), and this time (Monday, Nov. 2), it really ran over the road (not just trickling), and you’ll notice by the cones in this pic, compared with their locations two pix above, the extent of the erosion already.

I’ll be the first to tell you to think about a billion times before crossing water over a road, but you know I crossed that water. I COULD see the road under the road, and, well, I had things to look at up the valley.

And by Tuesday morning, Nov. 3. Denny was out Monday afternoon to check it, and you’ll notice that he repositioned the cones. I brought the one that washed down back up to the level of the road. (Those are not my truck tracks yet. It was gushy but OK.) Also notice that Lake Disappointment is down a bit again.

Continuing up-valley on Disappointment Road …

Can you see Disappointment Creek? Of course you can. IT WAS FLOODING!!!!!!

Lemme tell you somethin’: Even when there’s water in Disappointment Creek – even when it’s actually running, a “normal” amount of water, which is usually low compared with what most people think of as a flowing creek – you can’t see the water from here. “Here” is just on the north side of Disappointment Road (the road is to my right, and it continues down the hill and is on the right, outside this image). As wide a view as my phone can capture, this is two images merged together. At leftish are the rimrocks that create the western boundary of Spring Creek Basin. Above/beyond the rimrocks is Filly Peak, inside Spring Creek Basin. At farthest right is Brumley Point, which sits on the basin’s eastern/southeastern boundary. What you can’t see: McKenna Peak and Temple Butte, which are to the left of Brumley, under that low cloud. The rain had stopped about an hourish ago in this pic. Another couple of notes about the image: Disappointment Creek is flowing from far right to far left (southeastish to westish-northwestish), and that clump of cottonwoods at sort of right stands in a big bend of the creek, usually on ground above the flow of the creek. Can you tell that water is running straight through their trunks? Forget the bend in the creek; there was no bend, other than to sort of corral the flow of the water against the high bank; it was all water.

My jaw might have been left on the ground at that point. Pretty sure I left it there for the rest of the trip.

Zoomed-in of that cottonwood cluster (one of my favorites along the whole creek). Oh yeah, and imagine noise. Loud, rushing-water noise. Loud. Normally, you know, it’s pretty quiet in Disappointment Valley.

This looks like another nice little bend in the creek, eh? Except that that is NOT part of the actual creek bed!

The above three pix were taken Monday, shortly after the rain stopped that morning. Before we move on, here are two pix of the same places, taken Tuesday (yesterday):

Admittedly, this was taken from the road level, not my previous hilltop-lookout. You can see the water in Disappointment Creek – its normal, regular bed. The water has receded from the ground where the cottonwoods are growing.

And this is the area shown in the pic above the one above. … What, you don’t recognize it? Look at right – see the mud? Look at left – see the mud? I told you: That was NOT normal creek!

I had plans of going all the way through the befores and afters on my way up-valley … and then Disappointment Creek and Spring Creek down-valley where they flow under Disappointment Road farther west. … But there are a lot of places, and there are a lot of pix, and they’re in different folders (according to date), so I’m going back and forth … and it’s slow-going, and I am not the world’s fastest or most enthusiastic photo editor (technicalities). 🙂 So please hold that thought, and join me again for … let’s call it phase two, and I’ll see how far I get with photo-selecting and -editing to continue on! (Also, I’m mudded out of Spring Creek Basin again for another little while … )


Comments : 12 Comments »

Categories : Autumn, Colorado, Cottonwood trees, Disappointment Creek, Disappointment Valley, La Sal Mountains, McKenna Peak, Rain, Spring Creek, Spring Creek Basin Herd Management Area, Spring Creek canyon, Temple Butte, Water

Muddy water, keep on rollin’

24 10 2026

Well, yesterday was pretty quiet, weather-wise. Nice and sunny with fluffy, pretty clouds in a sharp blue sky. I made it down-valley to check on Disappointment Creek where it crosses under Disappointment Road on its way farther west, and I also watched happily as Spring Creek ran with muddy water in its broad arroyo a bit farther north.

This is a view of the still very swollen Disappointment Creek from what’s known locally as the Daddy Williams bridge (nope, I don’t know who Daddy Williams was). Looking upstream as the water flows toward me. Temple Butte is at just about center WAY back east.

And from the west side of the bridge as the water swirls and flows away toward the Dolores River.

Then farther north, past Road K20E to Spring Creek Basin – muddy and still puddled with rain water! – to check on Spring Creek. Oh, the anticipation! Would it still be running??

Spring Creek is much broader than Disappointment Creek at pretty close to the same elevation. You can see on the other side of the creek how high the water had risen along the creek bank and how much it had receded. By step-measurement, that was about 15 feet. Spring Creek Basin, the arroyos of which gather all this water into the lowest, main arroyo – Spring Creek – is visible in the distance to the east.

Spring Creek flowing out of Spring Creek Basin, through Spring Creek canyon, visible just right of center in the low background.

Looking nice and lovely and broad – and pretty shallow by this time – on the west side of this bridge, Spring Creek flows on west to join Disappointment Creek.

The rain should return today. Oh, and the total for the two full days between 8 a.m. Wednesday and 8 a.m. Friday: 2.74 amazing inches. Absolutely outstanding!


Comments : 15 Comments »

Categories : Autumn, Colorado, Cottonwood trees, Disappointment Creek, Disappointment Valley, McKenna Peak, Rain, Spring Creek, Spring Creek canyon, Temple Butte, Water

Plenty left

20 10 2026

Tenaz was feasting on greasewood during the band’s unhurried mosey toward water, so he was a little late to the drinks party in Spring Creek, but he made it. He’s looking up on the bank as some horses have already had a tasty slurp and have cleared the way.

Above is the same featured day as the last few pix – the day the clouds cleared after five days of glorious rain. For the next couple of days, we had the same bluebird sky you can see in the pic above … and now we’ve returned to clouds in anticipation of the next wave of rainy days!

Last night as you read this (earlier tonight as I’m typing), I can’t even put into words the crazy-awesome spectacularity of the storm sky, especially at sunset. There were at least four partial rainbows (a couple of them were very faint), and it rained so hard across upper Disappointment Valley that by the time I got out of the basin and up-valley a fair distance, alongside the basin, Disappointment Creek (which does NOT run through Spring Creek Basin) was rollin’ like a RIVER!

I already had the above pic of Tenaz ready to go, and I just don’t have time for all the processing of pix from today (yesterday as you’re reading), but hopefully by tomorrow’s post (as you’re reading), I’ll have some pix that won’t begin to do justice to the outstandingness of Mother Nature when she lets rip.


Comments : 6 Comments »

Categories : Spring Creek, Spring Creek Basin Herd Management Area, Spring Creek Basin mustangs

Spring Creek water

19 10 2026

This is another one from the day of clearing after the amazing five-day run of rain last week, and this is Temple in Spring Creek, just upstream of the canyon. Water most definitely had run through the arroyo (probably multiple times during the frequent rains over Spring Creek Basin), and there were big puddles in places (along with a lot of very deep, pillowy mud). This little stream in the arroyo was fresh, trickling water, which the horses definitely seemed to appreciate.


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Categories : Spring Creek, Spring Creek Basin Herd Management Area, Spring Creek Basin mustangs, Water

Well above

9 09 2026

Tenaz (and the other bands) were well up on the north side of Spring Creek canyon – near the highest point that looks west out over lower Disappointment Valley from above the rimrocks that form Spring Creek Basin’s dramatic western boundary – when I hiked up to them the other evening.

Below Tenaz is the eastern end of the canyon and Spring Creek (there’s actually water down there from where water running underground hits bedrock and is forced up in a decent-distance running seep). Behind Tenaz is the north-facing south rim of the canyon (the main western entrance to Spring Creek Basin is on south a short distance). To my right – ahead of him – the top of the canyon slopes upward to where it abruptly ends at the sheer vertical rim of rock that forms the basin’s natural western boundary. In some places, it’s natural, and in others, there are fences to keep the mustangs within the basin’s borders.

We came up (they were already there when I entered the basin and saw them) from an “easier” slope that comes up directly from the Spring Creek arroyo to the leftish/behind Tenaz.


Comments : 8 Comments »

Categories : Spring Creek, Spring Creek Basin Herd Management Area, Spring Creek Basin mustangs, Spring Creek canyon

Reckoning

26 07 2026

Between one thing and another (including some more sprinkles and thunder/lightning risks after the big rain Tuesday night), it took me three days to get out to Spring Creek Basin to check on the state of things. Only parts of the arroyos – Spring Creek above – were still damp, and this isn’t even close to as rearranged as I’ve seen Spring Creek and this crossing after a big rain over Spring Creek Basin. I’ve been turning the valve to one trough on and off manually because part of the float is broken, and I hope to report soon that we’ve fixed that. Fortunately, there’s plenty of water in the tanks to fill the trough pretty quickly (good pressure).

And kicking right on the heels of that encouraging news, some really awful news again: One of the two firefighters injured when Emily Barker, Nick Hutcherson and Sydney Watson were killed fighting the Knowles Fire, which merged into the Snyder Fire, has died. Nathan Matthews, 43, from Nebraska, died Friday. No details are being released about the second injured firefighter to protect the privacy of that person and their family. Prayers are with them all, along with the family of Nicholas Dale, the Canadian pilot killed while fighting the Gold Mountain Fire near Ouray.

The Ferris Fire is thankfully 97 percent contained, and progress continues with suppression repair work, especially along roads affected by the fire.


Comments : 10 Comments »

Categories : Rain, Spring Creek, Spring Creek Basin Herd Management Area, Spring Creek Basin mustangs

Some relief

14 07 2026

This pic, taken Sunday from between the main/original water catchment and Filly Peak in Spring Creek Basin, is looking southeast toward the Glade and Benchmark Lookout. A few days before, I’d seen the red swaths of retardant across the trees while looking at smoke up there, but I didn’t manage to get a decent pic that showed it. While fire continues to smoke in that area (that’s the Ferris Fire’s northeastern edge), clearly firefighters and aircraft pilots have been hard at work. So hugely grateful! Rick and Linda Freimuth, who staff the tower during the fire season (!!!) hope get the green light to return this week. The mustangs and I (you know they would if they could) will be cheering their return.

Now, some taken yesterday (Monday):

Storm brewing to the east. Spring Creek Basin’s western rimrocks and Filly Peak (lower left) are in sunshine, while Temple Butte, McKenna Peak, Brumley Point and the basin’s eastern ridges are shadowed by rain! Woo-the-heck-hoo!

Looking back to the west from the same spot as above. More rain! What looks like white smoke on the horizon at left IS smoke from the Ferris Fire … and I hope it got a good dose of the wet stuff. It wasn’t a high-rain-chance day, but toss the forecast and let ‘er rain!

Methinks the weather wizards were outsmarted by Ma Nature herself. 😉 RAIN, BABY, RAIN! This is from Chrome’s Point in western Spring Creek Basin, looking eastish at a curtain of rain that DID, as I was taking pix, make its way west. Unfortunately, I didn’t get tooooo wet. Ha – I would not have minded!

Ants congregating at the entrance to their mound. Apparently, “Ants congregate at their mound entrances after rain primarily to survive flooding. When underground tunnels fill with water, the colony is forced to evacuate. They move the queen, larvae, and food upward to escape the saturation, using the surface or mound entrance as a temporary, elevated sanctuary.” Interestingly, these ants and others I saw doing the same thing in the same relative area happened to be on some of the highest ground in the basin, near the western boundary. I guess that when you’re an ant, everything is at the elevation of ground level (ha ha!).

From the south wall of Spring Creek canyon looking eastish after the rain (it didn’t last very long, unfortunately).

Hope you don’t mind this view! It’s pretty spectacular. No, that’s not a road down there in the canyon; that’s Spring Creek arroyo, and just beyond (lower left), it leaves Spring Creek Basin to cross lower-ish Disappointment Valley on its way to join Disappointment Creek (neither of which are carrying water at the moment).

See the pinto pony? This is from the same point as the above two pix, looking generally northwestish across lower Disappointment Valley toward Utah’s La Sal Mountains. There’s a fence across this lower end of the canyon to keep the mustangs within Spring Creek Basin, and there’s a water gap (hanging PVC pipes to move when water DOES flow) across the Spring Creek arroyo. There are a couple of manmade structures down there, one behind McKenna and one kind of in front of him.

As it turned out, though he and his pal and a band were in the vicinity – and the reason I walked out – it was something else entirely that actually took me all the way to the canyon rim. … And that will wait for another post because I got some pix that knocked even my socks off.

To end this post, news that I never want to post because I want it to never have happened, some really tragic news from the Gold Mountain Fire near Ouray and Ridgway: A pilot was killed Sunday when his aircraft, used to aid firefighting efforts on that fire, crashed into Silver Jack Reservoir, in southwestern Gunnison County, on the northeast side of the fire. It’s the worst of all news to lose another firefighter. 😦


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Categories : Benchmark Lookout, Brumley Point, Colorado, Disappointment Valley, Ferris Fire, La Sal Mountains, McKenna Peak, Rain, Spring Creek, Spring Creek Basin Herd Management Area, Spring Creek Basin mustangs, Spring Creek canyon, Temple Butte, The Glade, Utah, Virga, Wildfire, Wildfire smoke

The good running

12 10 2025

At least one part of Disappointment Valley got 1.35 inches of rain over about 16 hours yesterday (it started around dark Friday and ended mid-morning Saturday). Every minor ditch and arroyo to every creek bed (Disappointment, Spring and Dawson creeks) ran with water. … LOTS of water. None had been running previously; all had been dry.

While a lot of water ran off and away, there must have been a fair bit of soaking in; the rain was all fairly light and decidedly steady. The ground and the road into and in Spring Creek Basin are all SOGGY.

Come along on this virtual tour with me – yesterday late afternoon – to see what I saw:

It’s hard to tell either how wide or how deep the water is here in Disappointment Creek several miles up-valley from the turn to Spring Creek Basin off Disappointment Road, but given that it was previously dry, I *hope* you can see that it’s running like a milk-chocolate river. This is looking upstream.

Another view, from several miles downstream of the above image; this is just 50 or 75 yards south of the road to Spring Creek Basin. The creek channel is much narrower here; I hope you can tell how high and wide the water is?

Now we’re looking upstream at Spring Creek water flowing downstream (toward us) from Spring Creek Basin, a few miles east (Temple Butte is visible against the horizon). (I’m still on Disappointment Road, a mile or so north of the above Disappointment Creek pic.)

And, from the other side of the bridge, Spring Creek flowing downstream toward its confluence with Disappointment Creek (marked by the line of barely visible golden cottonwoods in the middle distance).

I know it’s hard to tell width and depth again; the creek arroyo here isn’t terribly deep, but it’s three or four times as wide at this point as in the second pic of Disappointment Creek above. These creeks carried a LOT of water yesterday.

Then I went looking for the condition of the Spring Creek arroyo in Spring Creek Basin (in case this isn’t obvious, Spring Creek and its tributary arroyos drain Spring Creek Basin – when it rains – and the main Spring Creek arroyo carries all that gathered water west across Disappointment Valley to join the also-muddy water of Disappointment Creek, and together, they carry the watershed’s drainage to the Dolores River).

I thought you all might like to see a bit different view of Spring Creek, and I had to walk the last half-mile or so because the road was still too mucky even for my faithful little buggy, so this is just upstream and around the curve from the first crossing, where I usually take pix of rolling Spring Creek after a good rain. If you’ve ever gone into the basin with me, you’ve heard the story about Custer dam (and I even wrote a bit about it earlier this year). This image doesn’t show it well because of the background, but if you look on the left and right sides of the image above the water, you might see that the ground is abnormally straight/flat? Those sides are what remain of Custer dam (marked on maps). The brief story is that around 1900 (?), someone(s) put an enormous amount of work (and likely money) into building a dam to contain water from Spring Creek (the lowest/central arroyo in Spring Creek Basin) and the north and south *major* arroyos that feed into it (and a whole lotta other arroyos feed into all of them). The people also built at least a few miles of irrigation ditch. The story goes that the first major storm after the dam was built burst the dam. As you can (maybe?) see in the pic above, Mother Nature prevailed. (Who could possibly think this country is farmable?!)

Now I’m standing atop the south side of the dam looking downstream and westish. Just around the bend to the right is where the road crosses (when the arroyo is dry). It’s a weird perspective, and though I thought this would be a great perspective, it proved difficult to actually show. The road tops the area at the far (north) end of the dam, which is more to the right than “straight” across, but it’s only … 150 yards away, maybe? Or maybe it’s that from the far side part of the dam.

Now I’m down at the bend that you can see in the above pic, still looking downstream at the road crossing. You see it, right? Where all the rocks are at the left side of the pic. The road crosses the rocks, the arroyo and up the other side to the right.

Sorry, how about now? 🙂 Straight across. This should look familiar. … Well, except for the increase in rocks and the far side, which looks a bit like a wall. …

Looking upstream, there’s the curve where I was standing a couple of pix ago, looking to where I’m now standing.

The water, I should mention, had greatly receded at this point. This is probably some five, six miles (??) upstream from the first Spring Creek pix I showed toward the top of this post. I found evidence that the water reached probably at least another 20 yards up the road where I approached, from, say, the middle of the arroyo. It would have looked most definitely like Spring RIVER at its highest/deepest point. Spring Creek runs ONLY when we have a major rain event. … And when all that water from all that rain is done, so is the “creek.”

I’m gonna need my shovel. Again. 🙂

Are you tired? We’ve been walking around, in the super-mucky mud, in calf-high mud (or muck) boots. And we still have to hoof it back to the buggy. I was whupped.

But you can never, ever, ever beat that view. 🙂 Especially rain-dampened and -darkened. 🙂

I can’t wait to get farther in and take a gander at ponds. SURELY the mustangs have multiple water sources now. What an amazing deluge of rain. Much needed.


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Categories : Colorado, Disappointment Creek, Disappointment Valley, McKenna Peak, Rain, Spring Creek, Spring Creek Basin Herd Management Area, Temple Butte, Water

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