July 30, 2010 ~ Same (day) trip continues... we left the water trough and took a 4WD road up toward Shinn Peak and this is what we saw.
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| Red Tail Hawk |
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| Mariposa Lily |
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| Larkspur |
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| From the ridge top we looked down and saw this small band heading down to the water hole. |
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| Water Hole |
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| Cows |
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| Another water hole. |
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| Another small band down at the bottom. |
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| Skyrocket |
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| Coyote Mint |
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| Sulfur Paintbrush |
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| Very rocky volcanic terrain. |
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| One of the few places a hoof print could even be seen and it was on a trail going through a gate. |
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| Looking back down at Rye Patch Canyon, then on up toward the troughs and the trail that goes to Spanish Springs Peak. |
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| The two small bands together at the bottom just up from the water hole. The 2 stallions are meeting in the middle |
Went back to camp, cleaned up and prepared our dinner. As we were sitting down to eat a Ranger stopped in to see if we were hunters scouting Antelope. We told him we were looking for wild horses, so he directed us to Painters Flat and said he had just came from there and had seen a group of about 20. He also asked if we were coming back the next weekend for the roundup, no was our reply.
The whole day was a thrill, seeing Mustangs in the wild for the first time, being in the rugged high desert terrain with all of its wildlife and vegetation, wow! We will definitely need to get a good field guide for the area to better identify the plants and wildlife.
This map shows the area we visited, the yellow arrow points to the water troughs where the first large herd was and the green shows where we parked, hiked up to Shinn Peak and saw the smaller herd.
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| Click on map to enlarge |
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