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

Glory after the rain

3 11 2026

Well, Mama Nature was at it again, and she sent the clouds. And the rain. And more rain. And as the creeks rose and every low place that could carry water DID carry water, she sent more rain. Yesterday morning, just about 24 hours after she turned on the faucet, she turned it off.

By the time I sat down at the computer after dark and downloaded 441 pix *off my phone* (!!!), I was tired (I am tired!). So I’ll tease ya’ll with another fabulous sunset pic, looking across flooding Dawson Draw (I didn’t include the water in the pic) to the east-ish/southeast-ish toward Spring Creek Basin and farther up Disappointment Valley.

Please understand that this kind of rainwaterfloodingcraziness is super NOT normal for us, and I’m documenting it like I document the mustangs: with awe, fascination and magnificent gratitude.

Oh, and by the way, just in case you thought about it (please don’t): For the love of your own safety, do NOT drive Road K20E right now. I’m pretty sure Disappointment Creek rose high enough to cover the road (added to the rest of the rain that covered the ground and is still standing in many places), and that was enough to cover a stretch of Road 19Q, too. Just don’t do it.

Yes, that’s snow to the upper left of Temple Butte … and there’s also snow on the ridges at farthest right.

Pretty glorious way to end the day after the rain. 🙂

*****

The latest Colorado Sun article about the flooding: Flooding inundates southwestern Colorado as San Juan River crests below historic forecast


Comments : 8 Comments »

Categories : Water, Disappointment Valley, Rain, Colorado, Disappointment Creek, Sunset, Autumn

Long time, no see

28 10 2026

First, happy, happy birthday to my mom, Nancy! This is a bit of a different post, but it’s been a different few days. 🙂 Happy birthday, Mama! I love you!

By now, you ought to recognize this spot. … What? You don’t? Visualize it – all those rocks – COVERED in deep, brown, rolling, cresting water. Now do you recognize it? 🙂 The water in Disappointment Creek is still running, but it’s MUCH lower now.

The road (Black Snag Road) is, um, gone. It’s also closed by Dolores County (as is Ryman Creek Road farther up-valley). That may not stop hunters from trying to get across.

It’s still fun to see that rushing water and realize that if I stood a few days ago where I was able to stand to take this pic, I’d have been chest or deeper (probably deeper) in absolutely raging water.

Next, I’m going to move on to a much tinier stream …

Now we’re in an arroyo in southern Spring Creek Basin, and that is water … STILL trickling!

A couple of different critters, at different times, walked along and likely drank from the trickle. I think those on the left were from a coyote, and they didn’t have any detail anymore. At right, a deer, I think (and I saw two groups of does and their fawns of the year on my way down the valley road).

A little step of bedrock created a tiny little waterfall in the trickle.

My favorite pic of the series. I mean … WATER! Fresh, live water! 🙂 Singing its own sweet little song in the back of beyond.

But … look who else I found:

Misters Maiku and Corazon. 🙂

Happy. 🙂


Comments : 14 Comments »

Categories : Colorado, Disappointment Creek, Disappointment Valley, La Sal Mountains, Spring Creek Basin Herd Management Area, Spring Creek Basin mustangs, 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

This is what nearly 2 inches of rain looks like

23 10 2026

Well, I’d planned to have another sunset-glowing mustang for today’s post, but that had to be postponed for the below post. I’ll try to update the amount of rain, but as of about 3:30 p.m. Thursday, we’d gotten at least 1.97 inches. For those of you in rain-rich areas, that’s, like, potentially MONTHS worth of rain here in Disappointment Valley, Colorado.

There’s not a lot of sky color in the below pix, but there’s some gold in the way of cottonwoods more yellow than they were a few days ago.

Try to imagine the NOISE of an immense amount of water rockin’ and rollin’ and bustin’ its banks, and enjoy! (Oh, and while I was starting to process pix, um, we got some color …! 🙂 *wait till the end*!)

Well, THIS is interesting. I came from the west, which is the direction I’m looking in this pic; I drove past the bad place and walked back. So on the left/south is a pond that’s not usually there (!). And on the right/north, the continuation of the drainage – much deeper/broader/bigger – down to Disappointment Creek. If you’re paying attention from last time, that might confuse you, when the creek was south of the road. At this part of the valley, it has crossed under the road a bit up-valley of this location, and now it’s running west, north of Disappointment Road, which, here, runs northwest-to-southeast (or vice versa). The road eventually runs straight north to the highway, and Disappointment Creek runs under it again. If that’s completely confusing, well … here’s the map of Spring Creek Basin, which shows the area around it, but I’m not sure it’ll be more helpful?

Now I’m at the fenceline, trying to get a bit higher for a better overall view, looking south.

The road is wet and actively crumbling (this was probably around 2:30 p.m.). See the orange rock at left? It’s just on the edge of the road.

See the rock at bottom center? That’s the same rock, about 10 minutes later, down in the bottom of the hole after it slipped off the road from the water-caused crumbling.

If you’re driving in/out/up/down Disappointment Valley, take more than the usual care! For locals, this is maybe almost to the 9 mile marker.

Just as I was driving on up-valley, then, that little bright bit of loveliness caught my eye. Have you ever seen such a low bow?

Usually, Disappointment Creek makes a big half-circle around that stand of cottonwoods. Usually, the cottonwoods are not standing in water (floodwater or otherwise). Usually, there’s no water in the creek bed. Usually, even if there IS water, you can barely see it from the road. THAT is a lotta water, my friends. It’s flowing downstream from right (southeast) to left (northwest).

Holy moly high water. This is looking upstream – the water is flowing toward me as I stand on the road/bridge looking south. The water is WAY above and wider than its usual banks. That’s also BLM land.

And on the north side of the bridge, the water is, well, rollin’ like a rollickin’ river. I’m actually looking eastish/northeastish, and the basin is the farthest land you can see on the other side of that weird knobby hill above/behind the green cottonwoods. Here, though, the creek is running into private property. That clump of green cottonwoods in the middle of the pic is NOT usually in the middle of the creek. It’s not usually in the creek bed at all. The half-moon thing at right, under the bridge, is the very sad “water-gap fence.” A friend and I fixed it a year or so ago, and it was in good shape then. … I think it’s gonna need some more work. 🙂

Continuing up-valley, beyond that fence is Spring Creek Basin, and the arroyo is what I call the county-line drainage. The road is going southeast here, so although the county line between Dolores County (south) and San Miguel County (north) is east-west, it doesn’t cross the road that neatly. In any case, water from this arroyo flows straight into Disappointment Creek, which is behind me, south of Disappointment Road here. Disappointment Creek does NOT flow through Spring Creek Basin at all. And that’s what a fairly decent water gap is supposed to look like (minus the broken piece of PVC in the middle). The idea is that the poles flow with the force of water but discourage cows from getting through into the basin (or horses from getting out). I will tell you that it works much better on the horses than it does on cows.

Disappointment Creek just absolutely flooding, running downstream. This is on the south side of the road looking southish … maybe a bit southwestish.

I’m in about the same place for this one, but now looking upstream to the left (water flowing toward me). Zoomed in, which is the reason for the painterly look. But just look at those waves! Big rocks under that water.

Do the trees look more gold? This was just three days after the pix from the big photo post. And look way out yonder to the Glade. 🙂 Gorgeous (that gold is aspen).

No, that’s not a pond. 🙂 A pic from just about this same spot was in that earlier post. Wow.

I hope those cottonwoods are taking up a lotta, lotta water through their big ol’ deep roots.

And just a little bit later, I was up at Black Snag Road again. Do you wonder about this pic? Well, um, Temple Butte is there … in that CLOUD. There’s a pic from this spot (basically) in the earlier post, too, with Temple Butte glowing golden in sunlight.

Oooopsie. Important note: THOSE ARE NOT MY TRACKS. I’m not that crazy. 🙂 Disappointment Road isn’t too far behind me; ahead of me … do you see the creek already?

Remember what this looked like before? It’s really hard to convey the scope of the water in a still image. Remember the pile of dark dirt? Yeah, that’s gone.

Remember the rocks? I’m sort of astonished that they’re still there. … But I think you can tell that the road is basically now gone. But look across the creek (I mean river) at the darkish dirt – see the erosion? That’s from THIS recent flooding. The road goes up between the red-dirt bank and that darker dirt.

Rock ‘n roll.

You can see the erosion damage at the far side of the creek (river) better here at upper right. That is not going to be pretty when the waters recede. Pretty awe-inspiring currently!

I’d left the truck at Disappointment Road. Again, I was NOT going to risk getting stuck in the mud, so I didn’t drive down there; I walked! Then headed back down-valley, where I already knew I’d be driving back into the next wave of rain.

Painterly effect now caused by rain on the windshield between wipes. The road damage from the beginning of this post is between me and the oncoming vehicles. The folks in one truck came out Tuesday, when the road was dry. … Family members were hauling the camper and following, and they were consulting about the narrowed road. They didn’t have any trouble driving past the area, but I can’t help but wonder how they fared trying to park the camper farther up-valley.

And that was it. … Or was it.

You know that saying about the fat lady? I wouldn’t presume to know Mother Nature’s proportions, but Mama sings loudest and last. 🙂

Yes. She. DID!

Sing, Lady, sing.

I can’t make this up, and I wouldn’t know how to make it AI if you paid or threatened me.

Love. 🙂

I don’t know the final tally as of about 9:30 p.m., but as of about sunset (which was the above!), we were sitting at about 2.36 inches of rain since about 8 a.m. Wednesday, when it started. It is soggy. It is sloppy. It is saturated. Travel is NOT easy (or particularly recommended).

It. Is. SPECTACULAR. 🙂

** Update: The total amount of rain, in one particular location in Disappointment Valley, west of Spring Creek Basin, between 8 a.m. Wednesday and 8 a.m. Friday, was 2.74 inches. I think we didn’t get even that much moisture out of our snow last winter. It’s hard to convey, but that is an *enormous* amount of rain in two days from one system. Happy. 🙂


Comments : 10 Comments »

Categories : Colorado, Cottonwood trees, Disappointment Creek, Disappointment Valley, Rain, Rainbow, Spring Creek Basin Herd Management Area, Spring Creek Basin mustangs, Water

Another pond full

22 10 2026

Piedra grazes above another pond in Spring Creek Basin that has been filled by the recent rains!

It rained nearly all of yesterday, and we are slogging (thankfully!) through mud again. Maybe next year, we’ll get this bounty throughout the year. 🙂 We can hope.


Comments : 26 Comments »

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

Spectacularity

21 10 2026

In yesterday’s post, I promised for today’s post pix of a fairly stunning storm system that blew up over Disappointment Valley in the mid-or-so afternoon through sunset. This will be a photo-heavy (heavy on the heavy) post. The pix also are all from my phone. The immense scale simply wasn’t possible to capture with my long lens and narrow range of view. A few times, I wished I’d gone to the effort of getting my camera out of my backpack … but most of the time, I was too afraid to miss one second of what was happening, and, again, the sheer width of scale of the storm’s coverage across the horizon(s) was just too, well, wide.

I hate to be one of those telling you to “read through till the end” for the best part, but … well, let me know whether the final pix, of sunset light in the EAST, were worth waiting for.

Onward!

As wide a field of view as my phone can capture, it took four images, stitched into a panorama, to produce this image, looking from southeast at right to north-northeast at left. So if possible, imagine the scene not as a flat, two-dimensional view but as a curved (?) view. The storm definitely was coming from the southeast and moving north (left) … and around/beyond the basin, across the north, to the west? I sat for a long time at the main/original catchment watching it and taking pix as the sky evolved – in sunshine the entire time.

This was the first pic I actually took. There’s a pretty obvious downpour straight ahead, which is basically east-northeastish. It was not raining over Spring Creek Basin at this point, but the clouds were definitely shading the far, whole eastern horizon. Thunder was rumbling now and then, but I never saw lightning. The vast majority of the basin was under sunlight. There ARE mustangs way, way out, at the leftish side of the image.

A little more detail of the rain running across the landscape from near/over (?) Benchmark Lookout (at the leftish side of the dark hump of “hill” at far right) across upper Disappointment Valley and beyond Temple Butte (the edge of the promontory is just spotlit by a bit of sunlight).

And swinging a bit more to look east.

Meanwhile, a lighter rain system was moving north to the northWEST. You might be able to make out Utah’s La Sal Mountains through the curtain of rain (way) beyond Spring Creek canyon.

This is roughly what that looked like on the radar (a little delayed, I think). The blue dot was me, in the middle, in the sunshine. 🙂

There are the mountains; see ’em? I think the rain was moving across lower Disappointment Valley and maybe/probably not quite as far west as Utah. I’ve been in the same place taking all these pix (I sat there for quite a long time): at the road by the fenced-enclosed aprons that catch rain (and snow in the winter) and direct that water down to the 12,000-gallon green steel tank … and from there to the main water trough you can see downhill and to the right of the tank. (The farther, smaller, black trough is wired off because it’s a lot smaller, and darker, and the horses don’t prefer it. The big trough is the main trough. You can’t quite tell from this distance, but it has a triangular metal cover over it that enables the horses to get to the water and also helps prevent evaporation (or better than it would be if uncovered).)

And looking southeastish again. Apologies (not really) for the redundant pix … but this is one of my favorite views in the whole, great, wide and wild world … especially when it includes rain!

See how DARK it got to the northeast? Again, that’s beyond Spring Creek Basin – at least at this point (spoiler alert). But see that lit “column” of rain? Wild? I spent a lot of time and phone space taking pix of that cool thing as it moved with the storm system across the northern horizon toward the west (and I was in sunshine all the while).

Checking the progress of the rain to the east-southeast again. At this point, I think it was getting closer to Temple Butte – the rain, not just the shade of the rain clouds.

Another look up to the northeastish at that remarkable flame of spotlit rain. Notice, too, that we’re starting to get a great shadow of clouds over a great portion of the basin now. (I promise there were mustangs out there; I was watching about five bands way, way out while I watched the spectacular sky-show.)

I mean …

… it was …

… just soooooo …

… COOL!

Checking northwest again, over the canyon. That’s the north side at right, and you can just see part of the south side at far left. It’s not that wide; it curves a lot.

Ah! Rain has made it far enough west to cover Temple Butte (the promontory), at least, and maybe reaching McKenna Peak (the pyramid) and the eastern part of Spring Creek Basin. But note how sunny it still is.

Another very wide-angle view (just one frame). At farthest right, definitely getting rained on now: Temple Butte and McKenna Peak. At left, the remnants of that crazy … I don’t even know what to call that?! Looking like someone was shining a gigantic spotlight from the ground to the heavens. And still, I’m sitting in the sunshine.

At that point, I decided to head out. I wasn’t sure about crossing the V-arroyo (it gets pretty pillowy-muddy in heavy rain and is difficult to impossible to cross in that state), and most of the horses were well north of that point – and that’s before you even get to the first Spring Creek crossing. While thunder had been rumbling like a slightly disgruntled giant, I hadn’t seen any lightning, but in the wide open, I have a healthy respect for it (and a recent encounter of a near-simultaneous lightning-strike-thunder-CRACK is pretty close to front of mind lately).

Now I’m at Chrome’s Point in the far western part of Spring Creek Basin, and rain definitely is falling within the basin’s boundaries to the east. If you zoom in on Temple Butte and McKenna Peak, below the left base of McKenna in the golden-landscape area, you’ll see the fenced-in water-catchment aprons (looks a bit like a tennis court). On the road, just left of the far side of the fence corner is where I sat to take all the photos above this one.

And from Chrome’s Point looking northish (leftish is almost directly northish). Can you tell that the storm was moving across our north to the west (left)? I know that if you’re not familiar with the area, it’s hard!

So I left the basin thinking “what a great show put on by Mother Nature!” And also that at least the eastern-northeastern part of the basin looked to be getting some of the good wet stuff (which was not in the forecast, by the way). …

Yowza! That’s RAIN. Over SPRING CREEK BASIN! This is looking east while heading south on Disappointment Road, well west of the basin. …

Wait. What is that … ?

What that, you ask? THAT that!

It’s a DUST DEVIL. … With pouring rain in the background! Just like the weird rain column seen earlier from inside Spring Creek Basin, this dust devil was illuminated by the sunlight hitting that part of Disappointment Valley west of Spring Creek Basin (the ridge topped by rimrock at far right is part of the basin’s western boundary). See the far-far ridgeline curtained by rain? That’s the very same northeastern ridge that meets the sky in the previous pix taken within Spring Creek Basin.

I was so wowed that I was standing in the middle of the road holding my phone up and out in the classic pose as a truck was approaching. Fortunately, it was someone who knows me and knows my photo-centricity, and he kindly did not run me over. 🙂

Kinda great for zilch on the rain front in the forecast, eh? 🙂 And I will tell you that the ground was still satisfyingly damp out in the basin last night (as you read this), and now we have another day or three or five (who really knows?!) of rain chances in the forecast.

See the rainbow prism? That’s directly over Filly Peak in Spring Creek Basin.

Did I mention there’s snow again on the mountains on our northwestern horizon (Utah’s La Sals)? As a point of interest, Mount Peale is the highest peak in the range at “12,721 to 12,726 feet.” Moab is on the other side.

There was just about every bit of light imaginable during the time I watched the storm pass: glorious sunlight to dappled light to ominous rain-darkness. Something else interesting? I never got so much as sprinkled on, no matter where I was.

Oh yeah, and the light that produced multi-colored rainbow prisms (can you call it a rainbow if it doesn’t form a bow?). I think there were at least five, maybe six of these prisms. None formed a complete rainbow (if you can believe it), and none of them lasted very long … except this next one:

See the rainbow forming at upper left? (And check out that spotlight at farthest right!) Unfortunately, the prism was faint while the spotlight was on Buck Knob and its vibrant redrock layers, but, um, WOW.

It’s getting a little more visible …

The. Light. Was. Phenomenal.

The cottonwoods along the bottom of this pic line Disappointment Creek. Spring Creek is farther north, running out of Spring Creek Basin, which is to the right/east. They both run westish; Spring Creek runs into Disappointment Creek, and, eventually, FARTHER west, Disappointment Creek carries all its salt and sediment into the Dolores River. This view is looking purty near north. The shorter, yellow-y-er (that’s a word, creatively speaking) vegetation is willow and maybe some rabbitbrush/chamisa, too. The cottonwoods at this elevation are just starting to go gold.

Do you start to see why there are so many pix in this post?! The light KEPT CHANGING. What the heck are those beams right of center?! I never did figure it out.

Wide-wide view for perspective. The road runs straight east here.

And on I went up-valley (to the southeast). I mean, who knew what else Mother Nature had in store?

Disappointment Creek. Picture NO water here, and that’s what it usually looks like. This was when I first realized how heavy the rain must have been that I’d seen earlier … remember the very first pix at the top of this post? Spring Creek Basin is across the road (that I’m on) to the left.

It’s really hard to understand how this is such an astounding view if you don’t know what it usually looks like, but for one thing, there are usually giant rocks visible in the creek bed there.

This is Black Snag Road; Disappointment Road is about 100 yards behind me. … Actually, this is Disappointment Creek – err, river – making fun of the idea of there being a road under that rollin’ water (let alone a culvert … ha ha ha!?). This is where I wish I was adept at video and/or even knowing how to insert it. Because the sheer volume of NOISE (let alone water) was INCREDIBLE. Larry W. is the Dolores County road guy for this part of Disappointment Road; I couldn’t help but think of him while I watched this; it will fall to him to fix this … eventually.

That pile of dark dirt is sort of the edge of … well … where the water shouldn’t have gone around?! Seriously, do not mess with Mother Nature. She makes her own paths.

I’m not entirely sure where those rocks would have come from. I hadn’t been down to look at the crossing for quite a while until this moment, but the road is sort of … there.

It was hard to take a still pic that conveyed the noise and just sheer quantity of water rolling through the *ahem* creek bed. You see the rocks … and up to the right is a WAVE of mud-water. I think the culvert is sort of in that area? And/or rocks meant to stabilize it and the edge of the road.

Disappointment River. 🙂 Seriously.

Meanwhile, this was happening behind me (as I looked at the river, err, creek crossing); looking in this direction, the creek is behind me. Disappointment Road runs across the base of the pic; down-valley (northwestish) is left, and up-valley (southeastish) is right. The fence along the road – the boundary of Spring Creek Basin – is visible at left and right. The foreground is part of Spring Creek Basin Herd Management Area, but Temple Butte – lit up at right – is outside the basin, as is McKenna Peak, the tip and eroded slopes of which are visible at left.

Nope, it was not over!

Disappointment Creek flowing downstream from just upstream of the Black Snag Road crossing.

It was *this* close to sunset. 🙂

Mother Nature wasn’t close to done for the day.

I mean … can you die of absolute, heart-bursting joy at the gorgeousity of the world?! Hopefully not; too much yet to see. I hope you’ve stuck with me. … Really, it gets BETTER.

Are you sitting down? You might want to sit down.

As I went back down-valley, THAT was happening behind me. Ahead of me (behind me as I take these pix), to the west, the clouds were nearly gone, the sky nearly clear again. The color was all back to the east. (Note: These horses are not in Spring Creek Basin. I’ve never crossed over here, but this sunset was too amazing not to share, and this is where I was when I saw it.)

My jaw might have been on the ground. I hope you find these colors and cloud shapes impressive. … The pix don’t really do it justice; it was one of the top most spectacular sunsets I’ve seen in my life.

I might finally have run out of words.

Was it worth it? 🙂

WHAT. A. DAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Mama Nature, I never cease to be amazed. Keep on rockin’, Lady.

Thanks for coming along. 🙂


Comments : 12 Comments »

Categories : Advocacy, Autumn, Benchmark Lookout, Brumley Point, Colorado, Cottonwood trees, Disappointment Creek, Disappointment Valley, La Sal Mountains, McKenna Peak, McKenna Peak Wilderness Study Area, Rain, Rainbow, Spring Creek Basin Herd Management Area, Spring Creek Basin mustangs, Spring Creek canyon, Sunset, Temple Butte, Water, Water catchment

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.


Comments : 4 Comments »

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

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