By: Erin
On Saturday, before leaving for the Pryor Mountain Wild Horse Range in Montana, went boating on Yellowstone Lake for an hour. We didn't start out until about 11am, and didn't realize that the water gets very choppy at mid-day. 😬 Thankfully, the boats were very sturdy and made it safely through, but it was an interesting experience...! I didn't get any pictures during that time, because I didn't want to drop my camera overboard!
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It's amazing how tiny you feel against these enormous mountains!
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The water averages 41 degrees.
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We enjoyed beautiful scenery as we traveled out of Yellowstone's East Entrance into Cody, Wyoming. The Buffalo Bill Reservoir was especially pretty!
Buffalo Bill Reservoir
We entered the Pryors by Burnt Timber Road (a desert area), but the landscape slowly changed into grassy hills and mountains.
Arriving on the top of the mountain at sunset!
The horses were nearby when we arrived.
When we woke up the next morning the most popular band (family group) of horses on the mountains was just across the road.
For those who wonder why we chose to go to the Pryors, it is because I volunteer for an organization,
The Cloud Foundation, that works to preserve wild horses and burros on our public lands. We had also heard about the Pryor Mountain Wild Horses over ten years ago through the Cloud; Wild Stallion of the Rockies Documentaries we watched (they are available at most libraries, or you can buy the series
here). Cloud is likely the most popular wild horse ever and the same horse that I named my Cloud after. The wild Cloud went missing in 2016, so we didn't see him, but we saw his beautiful look-alike daughter, Encore (pictured above), and her first foal, Tor, as well as many of his family. The Cloud Foundation's wonderful Deputy Director, Dana Zarrello, met us on the mountain and we enjoyed spending time with her!
Another picture of our wonderful chef (the Blueberry Biscuit was a breakfast staple!)!
The Juniper Forests were perfect places to play!
Ms. Zarrello's dog, Noah, loved Benjamin and Joseph.
A wild horse stampede!
Cloud's grandson Echo and his newly acquired band. A wild horse band consists of a band stallion (far right), a lead mare, other mares, and foals or young horses.
Our matching wild horse and burro shirts with Cloud's grandson in the background!
Purple Mountain Lupine is one of my favorite flowers!
God's creation is amazing!
Cloud's last born, Pride. The Pryor Mountain horses are mainly dark colors, but there are a few that are rare like the buckskin coloring (above).
The sunsets were so colorful!
The foals like bothering their older siblings!
Two bachelor stallions (stallions that don't have bands yet).
Though this may look like a sweet picture, but it's not! This is what the stallions do before fighting, almost like "sizing" each other up!
Our family with Ms. Zarrello!
This is just a sample of the beautiful flowers that grow there!
Watching the horses.
The last evening we were on the mountain, Luke and I hiked up to where the horses were. One of the young stallions, Quanah, was challenging all of the older stallions in the area...not the best idea. Quanah is the blueish/gray colored one.
The foals were having a ton of fun!
This is a huge snow patch that slowly melts into a water hole.
We hiked to Krueger's Cabins the morning before driving out.
Before leaving, we stood in the meadow and prayed that the horses would not be removed (the Bureau of Land Management is considering removing over half of them unnecessarily).
On our way out, we stopped at the Big Ice Cave. It was one of the most interesting caves we have experienced! As we walked down the steps into the cave, it was a gradual change of temperature from 65+ to 30- degrees- almost like air conditioning.
All frozen ice! In the upper left corner is someone's breath!
"The earth is the LORD's, and the fulness thereof; the world, and they that dwell therein.
For he hath founded it upon the seas, and established it upon the floods."
(Psalm 24:1)
