Wise Old Man

The date was August 6, 2010 and we had such a great time at Twin Peaks we couldn't wait go back!

On the way through Litchfield we stopped at the feed store to ask a few questions about the area. Something disturbing the owner of the store told us was because of this "economic crisis" some people did not want to feed their horses anymore so they were taking them to Twin Peaks HMA and turning them loose to run with the Mustangs. She said it was terrible because domestic horses can not survive in the wild they do not posses the skills needed to find forage and water on their own over such a large territory. Domestic horses are accustom to being fed meals and many were old and "useless" so already impaired in some way. The Mustangs do not accept them into their families because they do not have the same social skills as wild horses. So they were starving, suffering and dieing. She wanted to go save them but the BLM said she could not, that it was nature taking its course.

Almost there!!!

We camped at Ramshorn Campground again, this time there were more people, all hunters there scouting Deer and Antelope. We quickly set up camp then hurried to the water trough to see if any Mustangs were there. This is what we found...

The gate that had been closed the week before was now torn down. There was evidence of struggle as posts were broken, wire twisted and the ground was all churned up.

We were very worried someone may have been injured in the chaos.

The brown patch in front of the fence made by a horse frantically pacing back and forth. The small puddle outside the fence was dried up now so the only water was inside. The last trip we wondered why this gate was even closed. It was obvious it was separating horses from each other and some from the water source. (see bottom of this post and this post)

This is what the water in the trough looks like in the hot afternoon.

Coyote... so cute!

We spotted him way off in the distance and he was walking like he was injured so we wanted to take a closer look to see if maybe he was the one who got stuck in the fence.

We drove to the top of the hill and couldn't get any closer so I got out to walk on up farther.

He walked on, then would stop to look at me, walked, stopped, looked, over and over. 

I meandered around looking at all the flowers, lizards and rocks, moving in his general direction but not pursuing him.

This made him curious and circled around to get closer.

He was gorgeous shimmering in the sun like a brand new penny.

He was very concerned about the pickup though!

He was trying to get down wind of me.
That is Observation Peak in the background.

After he filled his nose with my scent
he seemed to relax and continued coming closer although still concerned about the pickup.

Scratching his ear.

He was looking at the herd across the way.

The White and Chestnut Stallions bands.

He had no recent injuries but his body bears the scars of a Wild King.

 Leaving him to his journey toward the water hole we continued up to Spanish Springs Peak.
Still many flowers in bloom.
Penstemon

Don't know what this is or what was inside of it but there was no plant in it that was not outside too. Curious.

As if all that wasn't enough on the way back to camp we saw a Golden Eagle, a gorgeous sunset over the mountains, and these growing clouds...

Beautiful day!