Promising

29 07 2023

The upper atmosphere is trying to gear up to potentially, eventually, maybe – at some point – give us some rain. Soon (we hope).

The evening was punctuated with a few small, very faint rainbows, catching some elusive liquid suspended in the air. The above – do you see it? – was not only the biggest I saw, it was the first of the evening.

Long-maned Sundance, napping, which is to say, perhaps, waiting impatiently for the sun to set, relieving us all with a bit of … if not coolness, at least a cessation of boiling heat. The background was so gorgeously beautiful, but I had to use my phone (as opposed to my camera with its long lens) for the wide view.

Post-sunset in Spring Creek Basin’s wildcat valley, bands were peacefully grazing while rain fell (or seemed to fall) over the Glade to the south.

And as I left them to their evening repast, I found this guy:

Hollywood alone, within sight of the horses in the image above.

Just another low-key evening in Spring Creek Basin. 🙂 The moon is about half-full. Who’s ready for the full, super sturgeon moon?!


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Categories : Brumley Point, Disappointment Valley, McKenna Peak, Spring Creek Basin Herd Management Area, Spring Creek Basin mustangs, Temple Butte

Happy belly

27 07 2023

Stout Sundance isn’t missing any meals. Looking gorgeous in the lovely light.

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The powers that be have finally cottoned to the news the rest of us in western Colorado have known for a while now: It’s really dry out there: “Colorado’s drought is back after only a short reprieve.”

The U.S. Drought Monitor also agrees that it’s at least “abnormally dry” here now.

Also:

Versions of these signs are up all over our public lands currently. Despite the handy illustrations, some people still can’t seem to understand the restrictions (don’t ask). On a town errand yesterday, I ran into some Forest Service and BLM fire folks out of Norwood (about an hour-ish north of Disappointment Valley/Spring Creek Basin). They’d knocked down at least four lightning-started fires in the area the day before, one of them told me. (No rain for Spring Creek Basin … but thankfully, no lightning, either.)

No joke: It is DRY out there, it’s super hot (OK, not Phoenix- or Texas-hot … we’ve had only a few days up to at least 101F), and the wind is bellowing like a furnace day after day. Depending on the source, we have some possible rains (“t-storms”) coming next week. I think I speak for everyone when I say we’re beyond ready and hopeful.


Comments : 12 Comments »

Categories : Disappointment Valley, Spring Creek Basin Herd Management Area, Spring Creek Basin mustangs, Temple Butte, Wildfire

Bringin’ the sky-magic

12 07 2023

For the last very long – days and days and days and weeks and days and weeks – we’ve had solid blue skies. Every. Single. Day.

We finally got some clouds. And when Disappointment Valley does clouds, boy, does it do spectacular clouds.

In order of appearance from around 5:30 or close to 6 p.m. to after sunset:

Looking west.

Mustangs grazing and napping under the relief of clouds.

Silver linings.

Do you see the rainbow?

Rain – or at least virga – to the west.

More mustangs. More napping.

When I left the bands pictured above, I thought I might have a chance at any late surprise light with the bands pictured higher above. But they had moved quite a bit, and the clouds were heavy, and sunset was imminent. But as I left Spring Creek Basin, rain was drifting eastish along the southern ridges of Disappointment Valley. Then I dropped below the rimrocks (the basin’s western boundary), and holy rainbow! You’ll have to take my word for it that it was SUPER intense, and the photo above doesn’t do it justice.

By the time I got to the main road, that “surprise” light was glowing, and the rain had moved away from the southern ridges.

Meanwhile, to the west … this!

Bit closer view of the mountains.

Back to the southeastish, rain was actually falling over the southern/southeastern part of Spring Creek Basin.

And THIS happened. I’m not sure I’ve ever been so glad and grateful to have a cell phone that doubles as a very wide-angle camera.

We ended the day with some post-sunset magic.

And 0.01 inch of rain. 🙂 Enough to make part of the road … actually … WET!


Comments : 16 Comments »

Categories : Brumley Point, Colorado, Disappointment Creek, Disappointment Valley, La Sal Mountains, McKenna Peak, Rain, Spring Creek Basin Herd Management Area, Spring Creek Basin mustangs, Spring Creek canyon, Temple Butte, Utah

Traipsing

20 06 2023

Buckeye tiptoes through the tulips … err … moseys through the prince’s plume and larkspur. 🙂


Comments : 8 Comments »

Categories : McKenna Peak, Spring Creek Basin Herd Management Area, Spring Creek Basin mustangs, Temple Butte, Wild flowers

All the pretty colors

8 06 2023

Despite the promising sky and definite rain *around*, we got just a brief drizzle – the day featured above and below, which was a couple of days ago. …

** I had to update this post: We got rain yesterday! **

I had previously written after the first sentence: That’s good, but we always like/want *better*. Buckeye and his ladies and baby don’t mind waiting … it’s the humans who stress out!

We DO stress out … and we’re infinitely grateful when the rain finally falls!

All those little white bits on the ground are sego lilies.

Aren’t they spectacular? I posted another pic of sego lilies recently … taken with my camera, as compared with this one, taken with my phone. I’m not tall enough to give my long lens room to focus on the interior of these little beauties, but my phone does a pretty good job.

The prickly pear cacti are blooming now, too. Most blooms are shades of yellow and peach-ish:

But I found these blooms – PINK – just about 10 yards away from the yellow cluster above:

How wonderful are these colors?! And the flowers are pretty, too. 🙂

All the blooms and all the green – and the horses and other wildlife and humans, too, – are grateful.


Comments : 12 Comments »

Categories : McKenna Peak, Spring Creek Basin Herd Management Area, Spring Creek Basin mustangs, Temple Butte, Wild flowers

A little yellow gold

30 05 2023

This area of Spring Creek Basin where I found Corazon and his family recently was booming with yellow prince’s plume blooms, but though I tried fairly hard for a little while, Corazon wasn’t terribly interested in posing with the golden glory. He and his band members were much too interested in seeking out and eating the yummy Indian ricegrass, a cool-season grass that’s growing like gangbusters right now. It must be sweet and tasty because all the horses love it!


Comments : 4 Comments »

Categories : McKenna Peak, Spring Creek Basin Herd Management Area, Spring Creek Basin mustangs, Temple Butte, Wild flowers

Pops

26 05 2023

No, that’s not what we’re calling Skywalker these days. The blog post title today refers to the pops of color from the – in this image, scarlet globemallow – which is blooming like crazy all over the basin right now.

And not just those sunny little orange blossoms; we also have prince’s plume, larkspur, Indian paintbrush, still phlox, claret cup cacti blooms and numerous other colorful flowers!

Spring Creek Basin is GREEN with numerous spots of color all over. We had to wait a bit for our green and orange and yellow and purple and blue and red and pink … but it’s been worth it. 🙂


Comments : 6 Comments »

Categories : McKenna Peak, Spring Creek Basin Herd Management Area, Spring Creek Basin mustangs, Temple Butte

Waiting and watching

24 05 2023

Looks like the mustang fairies missed a couple of spots in Mariah’s mane during their nightly rituals. Maybe they just had a lot of mustangs to attend?! With a passing shower or two (or more), and attending winds, it’s a busy season for keeping mustangs looking their best (which likely could be said for all seasons … and yet, they always look marvelous!).

Mariah and her band were standing on the bank of a small pond, and I’m not sure what had caught her attention. There was another small band grazing some distance behind them, those horses having already been to the pond.


Comments : 10 Comments »

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

Happy Mother’s Day!

14 05 2023

To all the beautiful, wonderful mothers out there who support their children – theirs by blood and theirs by love – and who raise us up to cherish our mothers! 🙂

Especially to my mom, thanks for passing on your love of horses. 🙂 Thank you for being my mom! I love you – see you soon!

Some current Spring Creek Basin wildflowers for moms:

Evening primrose is starting to appear in numerous locations. Like the sego lily, the primrose seems almost too delicate for our desert environment.

And of course, perennial favorite (see what I did there?): prince’s plume. 🙂 Recently, I was a little afraid that the prince’s plume that was up had been battered terribly by the relentless wind … but very current plants look very healthy!

P.S. If the sky behind Aiyanna and Bia looks a bit grey, that’s because it WAS. Within half an hour of that pic, rain was sweeping Spring Creek Basin and lower Disappointment Valley! We need it BADLY, so it was a wonderful Mother’s Day eve gift to us all.


Comments : 10 Comments »

Categories : McKenna Peak, Spring Creek Basin Herd Management Area, Spring Creek Basin mustangs, Temple Butte, Wild flowers

Under stormy skies

1 05 2023

Looking at Sundance in the opposite direction from the pic I posted of him recently. Wonderfully stormy sky, which we haven’t seen for a few days and would very much like to see again!

******

Happy, happy May Day birthday to my brother, Jeff! 🙂


Comments : 12 Comments »

Categories : McKenna Peak, Spring Creek Basin Herd Management Area, Spring Creek Basin mustangs, Temple Butte

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