But our day was just beginning! Next we drove to a different area where we hiked a little to see if we could find any mustangs.
Not quite...but we did see other signs of life!
And saw some gorgeous high desert landscapes as well.
We headed back down towards the main road, passing the herd which was now pretty far up on the hillside.
We headed to a new area where Darice had some luck finding horses recently. But to our amazement, when we came down a main, paved road near a home where an adopted Carter Mustang lives, we saw two "bachelors" hanging out. They took off a little bit when we pulled over but we were still able to get some excellent photos.
This next shot is an excellent view of the zebra leg striping on the bachelor to the left.
And you can also see that these are true duns, with dorsal stripes that go all the way down into their tail hairs.
Down the road is another adopted Carter mustang.
Along with a couple adorable adopted burros.
We headed up to the scenic vista point which was so amazing. You could literally see for miles in all directions.
But, alas, no horses. Wah, wah.
We headed back down the hill and along the main road where we stopped for a couple more photos of the "Captured Carter" at the first ranch...
...and the two bachelors who were back at the fence of the next one. Not sure if they were being fed or if they were just interested in the horses in the corral, but it seemed a bit interesting to see them hanging out so closely.
At this point, Darice wanted to head to to another area where she had seen one of the most beautiful stallions of the groups recently, Mask. It was in a very remote area with bad, dirt roads, and cattle areas where we would have to open and close barbed wire gates.
We headed over that way and went to where she had previously spotted Mask, but he wasn't there. We walked a bit but to be honest, I had suddenly gotten one of my stupid "ailments"...migraine with nausea and weakness.
I wasn't sure I could do any sort of hiking but Darice was so sweet and encouraging. I definitely wanted to try, but was really afraid I was going to go downhill fast. Darice made sure I was fully hydrated and she went off and did a little scouting while I waited near the Jeep.
When she came back, she said she had seen some tracks on a trail that led over the ridge to the watering hole in the valley/canyon behind it. At that moment, we heard the distant whinnying of several horses.
Then it was on!
We hiked up the trail which was covered with both old and new hoofprints. And hoofs weren't the only tracks visible. We saw a fairly recent cat print as well as some coyote scat.
I didn't take photos of the scat. You're welcome. We also saw owls, a bunny, and numerous lizards. :)
But the real treat came when we crested over the ridge! An entire band of horses and also poor Mask! I say poor because he had somehow because stuck in one of the cattle areas and was fenced off from his friends and his freedom.
The next two photos are the same. But I wanted to illustrate just how hard it is to see these wild horses in this desolate landscape.
There are four horses visible in the photo. You should probably be able to find the two at the watering hold easily. Mask is a bit more difficult.
Here I've lightened the area around the horses and tinted it red to help you out.
There is one more visible so bonus points if you find it.
For more context, here is the entire herd stretched out along the watering "hole".
And here is the gorgeous land surrounding it.
We found a perch that was kind of like a foxhole. Surrounded on several sides by rocks and a tree, we felt like there was small chance that the horses would notice us and be stressed.
We set up shot and sat a boulder by the tree to take some hopefully decent zoom shots.
Here is a zoom/cropped photo of Mask behind the cattle fence. Look at his stunning coloring and markings!
I just fell in love with all these gorgeous creatures, but this beautiful palomino stole my heart.
Poor Mask. He just ran up and down the hill behind the herd, just desperate for his freedom!
Darice and I sat in our little hidden area and watched the band and Mask for quite awhile. But then Darice noticed that the horses were slowly making their way up a trail that would end up right beside our hidey hole!
We weren't sure what to do and kind of hoped they would go back the other way. But in the meantime, we kept silently snapping away.
I'm pretty sure the Palomino is on to us, but the others don't mind. Yet.
This is the one to watch (for us anyway)...the stallion of the band. And he couldn't care less about us.
But the ever vigilant lead mare was now alerting others to our presence.
We slunk a little further back under the tree but didn't leave as we didn't want to spook the horses and cause them to run.
Oh, those shoulder capes and stripes!!
But they were becoming more and more aware of us.
Now the entire band was pretty much lining up about 50 yards downhill of us.
They were not stressed at all but seemed quite content to watch us and hang out.
I love this next photo because you can see the different markings of the dorsal stripe.
The gal on the left has a very broad dorsal stripe while the palomino has the usual 2-3" wide one.
And you can see a herringbone pattern on either side of the dorsal on the 2nd horse from the right.
But then this guy started to stare us down so Darice figured it was time to move out.
We had honestly been sitting so quiet and still that birds were even landing in the tree beside us!
But we literally shimmied on our hands and knees, pushing our packs and equipment ahead of us, to get out of there and get back to the trail at a point that wouldn't spook these sensitive animals.
It was so amazing!!! It literally felt like we had been in a dream for the last couple hours to sit there with these wild animals just chilling and grazing below us. Such a blessed experience!
And we weren't done yet! Tune in for more!
xoxo
Nikon D3300
