Craziness: When you walk into the basin hoping to find a particular band, not expecting to see any other bands in the area in which you’ll be hiking … and find FOUR other bands … and still not the band you were *hoping* to find.
It happens. 🙂
Spirit looks fabulous against a backdrop of La Sal Mountains, still semi-snowy. With any beautiful luck, our world will be white in the morning.
On this evening, the horses were grazing some high ground along one of the basin’s main drainages. From the edge, they scouted ahead for dangers, then down they went to a seep in the arroyo below. Terra let the others determine the risk, then she followed for the trip to evening water.
On north-facing slopes, snow lingers on the ground since our last snowfall (more than two weeks ago) because those places don’t get the full press of sunshine that south-facing slopes get. We’ve had day-time temperatures in the 40s, which, with the full sunshine we’ve also had, is more than enough to melt snow quickly. Our overnight temps sink into the teens and 20s, so some snow still lingers on.
Our Monday-night-into-Tuesday-morning snowfall predictions are solidifying.
Did I mention that it has been more than two sunshiney weeks since we’ve had any heavensent moisture? We need some liquid gold … even if it’s temporarily “solid” in the form of gabillions of snowflakes.
Skywalker had been browsing around, then stopped to nap, and he was pretty determinedly paying zero attention to me.
And then he seemed to notice a pretty mare just ahead, and he perked up a bit. 🙂
He still paid me no nevermind, and that was perfectly OK.
Possibly other photographers would cull this image because of the dead – distracting? – sunflower stalk marring the lovely lines of Chipeta’s face. Maybe I’m just ornery, but I like it. Maybe it’s a reminder of summer, and given the awfulness of this winter (drydrydry), I’m in no hurry to get back to summer, but I still like it.
Is the rest of the image enough to draw your eye away from the bright, dead-center, dead-old sunflower stalk? Is Chipeta beautiful enough? Her coat fuzzy enough, the lift of her stepping leg strong enough, her nostril just-so-cocked enough, her pretty self aware enough … to focus your distraction on HER?
It’s enough for me. 🙂
Maiku, dear, did we interrupt your dinner? Please, carry on!
Lovely Maia, as pretty in winter as in the spring days of May, watches her band sisters as they browse through the trees near Round Top in Spring Creek Basin.
Chipeta found a patch of snow and was enjoying chewing it into liquid coolness. Fuzzy, fuzzy girl!
A few spots of white are better than NO spots of white. 🙂
*Spoiler* alert: The bummer is NOT Corazon. 🙂
The bummer, as you can see from the endless brown above (NOT Corazon, who, of course, is black and white), is the utter lack of snow yesterday, despite the teasing forecast that got our hopes up. I’m not sure what’s worse: snow in the forecast that never happens … or endless days of straight-up zero percent chance that it’ll happen.
Spring Creek Basin Mustangs 