This nice group of healthy elk was in the western part of Spring Creek Basin yesterday. The basin is a wintering ground for elk and mule deer; they find it welcoming at a lower elevation and not much snow (as shown).
The evidence that we’ve had snow is in the muddy, muddy ground (not visible but felt while hiking around)! The last forecast snowfall (Wednesday) gave us zilch again, so we’re hoping for some moisture Sunday and Monday.
I’ll have more dignified pix of Reya in the near future, but I’m posting this one because, although she’s known me since she was a weanling (which was a year or 17 ago), she’s the only horse in Spring Creek Basin who continues to blow at me. It *still* makes me laugh, which, I’m sure, is NOT the reaction she’s going for (if she were actually “going for” a reaction). 🙂
While walking through an arroyo in the far southern end of Spring Creek Basin the other day, I came upon these nifty little beauties:
These snow “wheels” really did roll right up as they rolled right down the arroyo walls!
The first pic is from one place, and the last two pix are the same spot. There were many such spots throughout the arroyo, and I promise that I didn’t have a hand in creating any of them! Their perfect coils must have had something to do with the moisture content of the snow that allowed them to roll so perfectly down the walls/slopes?
There’s always something wonderful to see in Spring Creek Basin!
Maia gives me a perfectly beautiful look with Temple Butte lit up with evening light against a bit of a cloudy sky (likely snow farther to the southeast at higher elevation). Beauty and beauty.
Sweet ‘n curious, that’s our girl Rowan. 🙂
Lady Houdini is showing her age every time I see her lately. It’s a hard time of winter right now with a fair covering of snow and very frigid temperatures. These are difficult challenges she’s met numerous times in her very long life, but at her age (30s, as best as I can tell), it’s still just hard on the old girl.
In another development, I found her not with Flash but with another young stallion. I’d been seeing them – from a distance – recently, so I don’t know what happened or exactly when. She’s in a completely different area of the basin now with her new band: three other mares, one of whom she knew from her years with Hollywood. Whatever else, I’m glad she has mare company.
Something about this image – the shade? – makes this scene look *cold* to me. Does it convey that feeling to you?
It WAS cold, and the wind didn’t help (unless you mean helping it seem even colder than the air temp).
This was late in the afternoon, and I’d been out for a couple of hours. Not much later, and my camera (battery) was struggling to work because it was so cold, even mostly sheltered in my pack. My old Canon is a workhorse, but cold is cold!
A face not just mothers love.
Gosh, Tenaz is soooooo handsome!
While the band napped, Skywalker foraged in the snow, lookin’ all handsome-like as he moseyed. 🙂
All those rich hues of brown and gold in a “simple” bay coat! Love.
And yummy snow-coated grasses!
