January to April 2008

Johnson City, TX...April is the most beautiful month in Texas. If you have the opportunity, try to be in the Hill Country of Texas when the wildflowers are blooming...gorgeous! This year, we traveled through the Hill Country, but found ourselves about a week too early to see the fields of Bluebonnets and Indian Paintbrush that can carpet the usually dusty, bare, cactus-laden ranches. We stopped at the Pedernales Falls State Park to see what the falls were doing (not much, as usual) and then made our usual stop in Fredericksburg at the Fredericksburg Bakery for strudel and coffee before really heading west to our family in California. Since the wildflowers were scant along the way, we thought perhaps they might be in bloom at a higher elevation, so we decided to go ahead with plans to stay in Ft. Stockton for two nights, and drive to Big Bend National Park in the Jeep for a day. The day was gorgeous, but a bit windy...but again, not much blooming. We visited Santa Helena Canyon which is a deep canyon that the Rio Grande has cut into rock. There is a hike along the river which we took...bad move...it became about 100+ degrees, so the hiking was not fun (for me.) However, it was beautiful. We got on the road the next day, only to be stopped by 60+ mph wind in El Paso that forced us to lay over in an RV park...and that also broke the strut off our door when it flew out of my hand when I opened it. Oh, well...more items to add to our list for repairs and servicing in Oregon.

Big Bend National Park scenery (thumbnails, so click to enlarge)

Lone Bluebonnet plant...the only one we saw in the whole park that day.

Like this picture? These horses are ENDANGERED... by HUMANS! These Pryor Mountain Wild Mustangs exist in a small population of about 150 horses. The BLM is advocating limiting their numbers for assorted reasons...none of which make sense. Please visit the link below which will give you a bit of info on the horses and will link you to places for you to voice your opinion. It's IMPORTANT! These horses are magnificent, and if we arbitrarily reduce their herd, their genes will be affected forever. Right now, nature will select for the strongest...which is what SHOULD happen. Please help with support for these absolutely wonderful horses....and try to find the PBS/Nature documentary "Cloud, Wild Stallion of the Rockies" to see an outstanding video which will give you a deeper understanding of these horses.

http://pryorwild.wordpress.com/

Roam around Matthew's blog above to see more photos and info on the various bands of horses in the Pryor Mountains of WY and MT.

UPDATE AS OF APRIL 2008...thanks to the many who helped write letters to the appropriate people, there has been some positive movement towards implementing a more "wild horse friendly" management of the Pryor Mountain Range. The planned reduction of the herd will be fewer and the bands will be kept intact as much as they can...only some of the younger horses will be rounded up and sold (the older ones are harder to place), so the bands should continue to thrive. Please keep checking the website for them to see what is happening if you're interested.