Desert Horses

Welcome to my horse blog, Desert Horses. We live in the desert southwest, near Palm Springs, CA, but board our horses up in our local mountains where it is cooler in the summer. I have 4 horses, all rescues. Here is the ranch up the mountains where the horses stay.

Sunday, June 14, 2009

Sleet in the Sierras!!! Imagine that!





























What a day yesterday was! We left home at 5:45 a.m. and got to Ridgecrest by 9:00. We bought 4 HUGE bags of carrots for the mustangs and off we went to feed them. I always enjoy the geldings and 2 year old males! They are just so goofy! They got 2 bags. Then, on to the mares. They were shy at first, but soon they too, came up to the fence for carrots. Then, off to the other side of the corral. Some of the smarter ones followed us, including one beautiful dark buckskin who followed me and waited by the fence for her share (again) by banging on the fence with her foot! Smart girl! Then, on to the moms and babies. There was a roan mare and her baby who OBVIOUSLY knew what carrots were! The baby, about 7 months old, started banging the fence, too! She knew what she wanted! Some of the babies were shy, but after we threw broken up carrots over the fence to them, they enjoyed theirs.
Then, I asked hubby, "Hey, since we are already here on 395, do you want to take this up to Yosemite, go up the Tioga road, and drive through the park from the east?" "Sure," he said, so we hit the road and went through Lone Pine, Independence, and DUH...of course we stopped in Bishop at Schatts' bakery (spelling?)... We bought sandwiches, cheese rolls, an apple struedel, and cheese bread and off we went, up 395. Hmmm....clouds....on to June Lake, where we saw a beautiful waterfall. Oh, my! It certainly was chilly up there!!! Oh, is that thunder I hear? Those clouds look awfully dark! So, at Lee Vining, we turned up the Tioga pass (yes, my little car took that road in 2nd gear!) The road was wet from rain, which soon turned into....SLEET! Egads! So hubby said, "Hit the gas or they'll close the entrance to the park and we'll be stranded here without a hotel!" (our hotel is in Merced, on the OTHER side of the park!) So, I flashed my handy-dandy $80.00 national park passport at the guy as sleet was coming down! It was pretty dark, but I stopped at the visitor center and ran in and bought a tee-shirt! Hubby, wisely, chose to stay in the car! As we ascended to 9,000 feet, the sleet continued. Once we got to Olmstead Point, and saw Half Dome lit by the sun among the clouds, we knew it was worth it! Then, we drove up over the top of the mountains and saw many beautiful waterfalls! Of course, we stopped to photograph them. Once we were over the top of the mountain, the weather changed to just rain. Phew! There were waterfalls EVERYWHERE! We got down to the bottom of Yosemite Valley and turned toward Merced, thankful to make it through the park! Today we return for more adventures. Photos to post later as I go through the 10,000 we took yesterday! We both had 3 cameras we were using and I'll have to go through them all!
Enjoy your Sunday and give your horse(s) a hug from me.

4 comments:

Molly said...

Gosh, what a wonderful trip! Thanks for blogging about it. I love Yosemite but haven't been there in 5 or 6 years. What fun to have dramatic weather and all those vistas.

Cactus Jack Splash said...

Good afternoon!
You have won an award, go to my blog tomorrow morning to pick it up

Laughing Orca Ranch said...

What a fun change of plans. Sounds exciting, scary and magical!

Funny horses...."I want carrots...yes I do....I want carrots....how about you?!"

hehe!

~Lisa

arlene said...

Wow, what a wonderful time you had.