Stewart Creek HMA in Wyoming - January 21 2023
You probably know I am just a little bit obsessed with those wild places in which wild mustangs run with the wild winds.... so much so that I go in all seasons - scorching summer days, temperamental spring and fall months, bitter winter winds - the only thing I avoid is mud season, and even then I obsessively watch the weather forecast for a reasonably dry day to travel those roads into wild horse territory!
Arapaho Creek HA in Wyoming - January 21 2023
Those of us in love with the Red Desert mustangs are lucky, even in the worst of winters we can see parts of three HMAs in that complex from main highways, and there have been winters that highway view is all I have had of wild horses and their territory for two or three months!
Crooks Mountain HMA in Wyoming - January 21 2023
When I planned this particular trip I did not expect to get very far down any of the dirt roads.... it has been snowing steadily in the desert since November, when my husband and I visited in December the roads were getting a bit iffy with several of them already drifted in with snow, and then there was another good snow fall after Christmas, so I of course assumed none of the roads would be plowed now.
Pronghorn in Green Mountain HMA - January 21 2023
As I left Jeffrey City and drove down the dirt road a 'Road Closed Ahead' sign stared at me, daring me to go any further... of course I had to take the dare! My rig was fueled up and ready to see just how far ahead the road would be closed - as it turned out on this day.... luck was on my side and I got to drive several miles through the desert in a stunningly gorgeous snowy sparkly desert landscape under a sunny blue sky - with no wind!
Stewart Creek HMA in Wyoming - January 21 2023
There is a magic in winter that is unlike anything else I know.... the loneliness, the solitude, the silence. The way it sparkles for miles... the feeling of something I do not have words to describe. It is a magic I have only felt in winter when the snows have claimed the land, requiring humans to leave it be, giving rest to a place, and its wild inhabitants, that has so many demands on it from so many people for many different reasons.
Arapaho Creek HA in Wyoming - January 2023
As I drive slowly along, now well past where I had expected the road to be closed and barricaded.... I wonder if I will find any wild horses today. So far there have been none to be seen, not even in the places I have known many to winter in, and no tracks or other signs of any kind of life. And then I see tracks... and as the road looks a bit drifty I stop to look before driving any further - those are wild horse tracks trekking down the road!!
Although it looks drifty the snow is compacted and it is safe enough to continue driving for a little while... as long as the wind does not begin to move the snow - hoping to find this lone horse that is wandering down the road.
Osborne Road in Arapaho Creek HA - January 21 2023
Even after all the time I have spent in the desert, in Wyoming, I am always left in awe at the pure stunning strength of winter in this place - perhaps that is the magic of it - man cannot tame it, cannot bully his way through and conquer it into submission, but rather instead when the snows fall and the winds rush across those hills, man is the one that must submit and admit defeat, for at least a moment, to the ways of nature.
And then I see him..... a lone stallion that has been using the plowed road to travel, looking for easier places to forage, enjoying this quiet sunny day, he glances at me, making it clear he does not wish for close company, that all he desires is to enjoy the grasses he has found under the snows. I snap a few shots with my camera and leave him in his wild wintery desert.
Arapaho Creek HA in Wyoming - January 21 2023
He would be one of only a few I would see closer to the road today.... most of the mustangs are on high wind cleared ridges grazing, or down in draws digging for grasses, and taking shelter from the winds. They are here in their desert but they are a little bit harder to find for us humans, as they travel to the places they know to go to in the winters, they have survived these winters far longer than I have known them, they know the secrets of their desert and they will come through this winter as they have all of them.
Arapaho Creek HA in Wyoming - January 21 2023
I continue my drive... still unsure where I will be allowed to travel, still expecting to be forced to turn around at the next turn - and then finally I see the end of one road, deep banks of snow pushed up to prevent anyone from traveling the road any further - they don't want to have to rescue an unsuspecting and inexperienced traveler. But - although this way is closed, there is still another road cleared, and so I follow it out and down to the main paved back road in the Stewart Creek HMA. It becomes clear then that my options are to go back the way I came - risky now as the wind has begun to stir in the afternoon.... or head to the highway, so to the highway I go!
But there is one last place that I think may be plowed.... so from the highway I turn to go to Bairoil - and my hunch is true, they have plowed the dirt road there too - the snows here are MUCH deeper, the wind has been whispering harshly here and the drifts are incredible and intimidating as I drive this road, very conscious that if the wind begins to whisper more seriously across the snows, I may be trapped out in the desert.
Stewart Creek HMA in Wyoming - January 21 2023
Stewart Creek HMA in Wyoming - January 21 2023
I make it to a desert intersection of dirt roads - if I had time I could go a little further on one of the roads that is cleared... but alas, the days of winter are short, and I must head back to my home before it is dark and the deer are on the highways!
I leave this place of magic and beauty with a longing to stay, to return tomorrow and every day after - but I know that today was the perfect day. And there are not many perfect winter days in this place, there are many snowy wintery bitterly cold windy days, days that will take your life if you are foolish enough to venture into the desert on them. So I take with me the memory of this perfect day and I hold it close in my heart until the next day of magic.
Green Mountain HMA in Wyoming - January 21 2023
And now for practicality and a warning..... this was the perfect day, the sky was blue and sunny, the wind was quiet with barely a whisper, and the roads were recently cleared for the mining crew. All of those things had to happen together for it to be even a little bit safe for me to go trekking across those snowy desert hills, not one or two things, all of them! I obsessively checked the weather forecast, I watched the skies, I listened for the wind, I checked any questionable spots on the road before driving through.... I made dang sure my 4x4 was in good working order, I packed emergency supplies such as fire starters, emergency and regular blankets, extra water and food, extra clothes!!! And I let people know where I was along the way... winter in the desert is a magic unlike anything else I know - and it is a place that will take your life in a heartbeat because you dared the wind to catch you, because you thought that cloud was not anything, because you thought it would be fun to bust through a snow drift.
Drifted in Semi: Stewart Creek HMA - January 21 2023
If you get the chance, go! Experience the magic of winter in the desert - but - please make sure to take precautions, plan plan plan!!! And have backup plans... make sure you make it home to your family and friends with those memories of a perfect day of desert winter magic and wild mustangs!
Green Mountain HMA in Wyoming - January 21 2023