An Amazing Encounter with a Wild Mustang Herd - Carter Reservoir Mustangs Pt. II

In the last post, Darice of Carter Reservoir Mustangs, Inc. wowed me with our first wild horse herd of the day.  

Click HERE to see the uniquely marked and beautiful herd of living history!

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

Boat Trip in Grays Harbor Washington Part II

On my last post, we were out on the beautiful Pacific Ocean and Grays Harbor in Washington State.  Such an amazing place with tons of marine mammals, birds, ships, and beautiful views!  You can Revisit Part I by clicking that link!

In the meantime, here's a little video I created (my first really) to memorialize the wonderful trip and the amazing time we had watching the birds out in the open ocean.  I promise there is no annoying music. 

We had so much fun sitting there watching all the birds come in and fight for the fish.  Sabrina and I were just snapping away the entire time!  Let me tell you, it is HARD to take video on a boat in the ocean, even though it was a relatively calm day!

And now for the pictures:

Look at all the fish!  Anyone know what kind?

Pelicans coming for a landing in black and white

There were so many birds out there!  I love this shot which is a good illustration of pelican pouches in various states.

And in this guys pouch, you can actually see the outline of the fish he's swallowing!

I'm kind of fascinated with pelicans.  They are so prehistoric looking!  If you look carefully, you can see the head of a fish that the guy in the front is scooping up. 

And then off they flew!

But soon it was time to go back into the harbor before we ran out of gas.  Lee wanted to take me under the bridge we drove over, which can only be done when the tide is high, which is evidenced in the next picture by the waves breaking. 

And under we go!  This bridge is actually pretty close to Sabrina and Lee's house.  And it's right next to Brady's Oysters, where we usually stop for some delectable ocean delights. Last year, we witnessed a bad accident, so it's no longer Angela's favorite highway, that's for sure.  

After we had cruised around under the bridge, we headed back to the marina.  But first, I had a question.  Periodically there are these towers in the water.  They are a single pole with a ladder going up to a basket on the top.  I wanted to know what they were for.  

I guess I really had two questions because I also wanted to know if I could climb up one.  I was DYING to climb up one.  Verna seconded my idea enthusiastically.  Lee?  Not so enthusiastic.  

Last time I was in Washington Lee got pulled over because us ladies were sitting in lawn chairs in the back of the truck while we were riding on the beach.  He was really not excited to get in trouble again.  But how could he resist us???

And in a MASTERFUL show of boat piloting...errrr...driving....errr whatever, he pulled that boat next to the ladder and up we climbed!  Verna went first while Sabrina and I made sure the boat didn't rub the ladder.  And then up I went!

Thank you Sabrina for the lovely shot of my ass, and Angela for the screen grab and threat to put it on Facebook!  Beat you to it!!

Let me tell you, those rungs HURT and they were covered with bird poop.  But it was WORTH IT!  Verna and I were KING OF THE WORLD!  I believe Sabrina has a photo of us, but I don't have it yet.  We wanted Lee to pull the boat away so you could see how high up we were and how far out in the water we were, but he was a bit nervous.  

And then we saw the Coast Guard helicopter take off and we thought we were flat busted!  Verna shimmied down the ladder, but then became a bit indecisive about how exactly to get back on the boat.  So of course she had one hand and foot on the ladder, one hand and foot on the boat... Lee was getting a little nervous about that helicopter and let his attention waver for a second and Verna looked like a big X!  We thought she was going to fall in for sure, but Lee corrected quickly.  

A little too much, to be honest, because then she got squished between the boat and the ladder!  I was so worried, but I honestly couldn't help laughing somewhat hysterically!  It was like a freaking cartoon!

But soon she was safely on the boat, so I went down the ladder as fast as I could and jumped on board so Lee could put some space between us and the tower before we got arrested. 

Luckily, the Coast Guard was otherwise occupied, picking up a boarding party off of one of the huge ships. 

It was really cool to see them winching men up one after the other. 

But we soon saw another menacing sight...a Coast Guard ship heading our way! And yes, that little tower to your right of the boat is very similar to what we climbed up. 

But they were just going back to base and we all breathed another sigh of relief!  And then we headed back in as well. 

I love this sequence of this pelican landing on the breakwater.  

Not just for the graceful beauty of these birds...

 But also because there was one pelican who didn't want any more birds landing!

 It's the old man pelican equivalent to "Get off my lawn!!"  Haha!

 Pelican says "I do what I want!"

Cormorants!  And I believe you can see the crest on the double-crested cormorant on the bottom left!

And on these guys too! Kind of. 

 Another great shot of a pelican flying low above the water. 

When we got back to shore and Verna told Angela about our adventure, she let Verna have it!

 Apparently Verna doesn't know how to swim!!!!!  OMG!  I totally would have dived in to save her. 

What a lovely day!  We finished up by stopping at Brady's Oysters where my big brother bought me some oysters, clams, and an adorable mug which proudly adorns my desk at work. 

This is a tower like the one we climbed, but this one is closer inland to Brady's oysters.  

So much FUN!

xoxo

Nikon D3300