Wild Horses in the dark

We packed the truck for a quick weekend to a new part of the world neither one of us had seen before the weather makes this sort of thing unbearable.  The target was Devil’s Canyon on of the WSA‘s in the Red Rock act that congress is debating.  It’s less than a mile from I-70 for most of it’s length and couldn’t be more wild!!  As usual with our desert trips we just kept going to see what was around the next corner, and then the next.  In search of the perfect view, perfect campsite, or just not wanting to miss whatever amazing thing may be right there in front of us.

For only the second time in all my years wandering around the Swell, we ran into Wild Horses near the Copper Globe Mine.  The power, freedom and beauty of these animals is overwhelming.  The big stallion coming out of the woods to stare us down, ready to defend or fly, but not afraid of us.  We watched them for awhile and then moved on.  After a few more hours of driving, a few more places on the list to come back to someday (without the dogs) we finally settled in a narrow canyon off the main road.  As we sat around the campfire in the dark admiring the stars, the horses came through.  Heeley ran out to defend our camp, Kari and I struggled to grab the other dogs.  I ran after Heeley, so close to them I could hear them snort, but even with my headlamp they were ghosts in the dark.  We got Heeley in the truck and Kari hung out with them while I stayed around the camp, not quite sure what I was doing.  Hoping for a glimpse I guess.  After a short while they all moved through, I never saw more than eyes reflected in my headlamp.  It was one of the most amazing, terrifying and thrilling experiences of my life.  In their haste to move down canyon and out into the big meadows, the horses seemed almost predatory, not sure if one of the big guys would attack to allow the others to move on by, or if they would just take their chances and all move at once.  They would return in smaller numbers a few more times during the night, but we never saw them, only heard them

The trip ended with a side trip through nine mile canyon, and more things to come back and spend more time exploring one day.  The old reliable Tundra kicked over 100,000 miles on the way home from another trip where she probably didn’t belong, but she takes the beating (a new dent in the nerf bar) and keeps begging for more.  When Kari posts her pics, maybe I’ll be able to show you some of the obstacles I climbed over, in the meantime enjoy my pics here:

San Rafael Swell and Nine Mile Canyon

JMH

This entry was posted on October 12, 2009 at 09:04 and is filed under Random Thoughts. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response or trackback from your own site.