The area the horses are in is about 392,000 acres. I wanted to check out the lay of the land because I'd read that I would likely see wild horses, but think about it. In such a large area I was worried that my chances would realistically be slim to none.
But look! Four of them. We came upon wild horses three or four times during our drive. I was thrilled. My husband was too. He thanked me for finding this awesome locale. Son asked for some math to do. He was being a pill. Oh, what a spoiled child! lol! Only two other drivers did we see while we were there. We saw up to eight horses at a time which I think you call a pod. The pods get together and make a band.
You can hire a guide, but surely you don't need to. I read there's one single guy who's licensed to go into the back country. But our truck has 4WD and there are a couple small side roads we saw that we're going to take. Shoot, half of the fun is finding the wild horses yourself. It's an adventure! You can do the main gravel road with a car. It was very well maintained. It would be exciting to find a large band of 100 or so but on the other hand, they run when they see you. I'm guessing you'd have to be a fast photographer and maybe you'd need a super telephoto lens. Those only go for about $5,000+.
Look at these two lively colts frolicking! They were so playful and full of it. I broke my own heart because I cut off their feet in this frame. I can't describe what a treat it was watching these two. One of them nipped at their mom too!
I kind of liked these three horses.
We were surprised to see antelope too. Twice. As you can see, the challenge in taking an antelope picture (wild horses too for that matter) is trying to obtain said photograph of something other than the rear end portion. Anybody can photograph the hiney! I'm going to try hard tomorrow. It will be my only day, my only chance.
This is the closest I've ever been to antelope. Before this year, I couldn't have told you the difference between an antelope and a deer.
And I don't want to leave out the little grouse. She had one baby with her. It was a kind of a big baby, not small. I imagine in this country it's hard to survive if you're a grouse. The coyotes must like them a lot.
Lastly, if you wonder how a loop like this ever came to be there's a short explanation about it here. Two guys put their heads together and got five agencies coordinated. Pretty good, huh? I guess it's a new loop. Maybe that's why there were so few people.
It was a great day. The best of the year. I'm looking forward to tomorrow.
