
Handsome.

Something a weeeeeee bit different today. Literally. 🙂 This little guy or gal was smaller than the palm of my hand.
Every fall, we start to see the little crawlies crossing roads, trails, random little places.
This link refers to southeastern Colorado, but we certainly have them in our southwestern corner, too.
I like to see the little critters – who doesn’t root for those looking for love? – but a little bit of distance is preferred. 😉

Chipeta had finally deigned to look up from her grazing to pose with Utah’s La Sal Mountains in the background … but the shadow cast by the setting sun from her hip was right on her face at about eye level. I was hoping she’d lift her head just a fraction of a bitty bit, so I could at least see her eyes … when she turned her whole head to look at a band mate behind her.
Ahhhhh. Beautiful. Click. 🙂

Is it just me, or is Storm just glorious, even covered in old mud, hanging out, napping, watching his mares graze?
Yeah. I think not, too. 😉
How beautiful is this old planet?





Anyone disagree?
I thought not. 🙂
(These images were taken from outside Spring Creek Basin, southwest of the western boundary. The first three pix are looking far to the southeast. The last two are looking northeastish; the rimrocks form the basin’s western boundary, and the middle-ground treed ridge(s) are in the northwestern region of Spring Creek Basin. After sunset and and faded rainbows, a curtain of rain swept through the basin and on across the northern hills of Disappointment Valley. All kinds of perfect!)

We have had a pretty amazing surge of rain this fall – contrary to the forecasts for a dryer-than-usual fall. Or maybe that was for Colorado in general, which doesn’t seem to remember sometimes that our southwestern corner IS, in fact, still within the Centennial State’s borders. (And although we’re still dry – we *are* high desert, after all – other parts of Colorado are in (much) more severe drought than we are now. The U.S. Drought Monitor has reduced us to “abnormally dry.”)
Lower Disappointment Valley (as the elevation changes – and it changes rather dramatically from upper to very lower – rainfall amounts vary wildly) has gotten at least 1.84 inches of rain just in October. … Are you paying attention? That’s just the last few days! To put that in perspective, we got just 2 inches of liquid moisture between last Dec. 1 and this April 1 (that’s liquid from snow). Wowza.
We’re kinda dancin’ a bit ’round here. 🙂

The pix in this post are of Temple Butte … different perspectives than normally seen from the interior of Spring Creek Basin. The top pic was taken from southeast of the southernmost basin boundary (Spring Creek Basin is basically on the *other* side of it from that perspective), and the one above was taken from below the last/southern/southeasternmost drainage in the basin – both from Disappointment Road.