Southern Wyoming and Wild Horses

Our quarry: a Wild Horse

On our way home from Grand Teton and Yellowstone, we passed through some incredible fall scenery in southern Wyoming as we headed for our final stop: the Green River/Rock Springs area.

We stopped at a lovely park near the southern segment of the National Elk Preserve, but I cannot recall the park's name or find it on a map. Anyway, it had access to the Snake River ...

Snake River; Photo: Scott Stevens

Great fall foliage ...

In the week and a half we had been gone, fall had come on strong

And, some adorable Yellow-rumped Warblers ...

Yellow-rumped Warbler against an autumnal backdrop

Then, we stopped along the Snake to view a colorful bridge ...

Bridge over the Snake River; Photo: Scott Stevens

And to view a kayak run ...

Wild River

We explored a bit and headed on, arriving in Rock Springs in the late afternoon.

Wild Horses
Our goal was the 24-mile-long self-guided Pilot Butte Wild Horse Scenic Loop that travels between Rock Springs and Fourteen-Mile Hill near Green River.

Wild Horses

Located on top of White Mountain, 7,949-feet-tall Pilot Butte was named by early travelers in the region because it served as a signal that they were close to the Green River. And, looking at the landscape, you can appreciate how much proximity to water would mean.

We drove part of the gravel road the afternoon we arrived and got nothing for it except a flat tire (apparently the sharp rocks cause a lot of flat tires, according to the tire shop that fixed it).

Scott hard at work

With brand new tires, we set out the next morning and finally encountered seven of the allegedly 1,500 - 2,500 Wild Horses that live on the Mountain and are a subset of the approximately 6,000 Wild Horses that live in Wyoming.

Youngster with an interesting blaze

Whether Wild Horses are native depends on how you look at it.

Horses first roamed the grasslands of North America during the Pleistocene Epoch about 10,000 years ago. 
Then, for unknown reasons, they vanished until the 1500's, when Hernando Cortez and his Spanish Conquistadors brought horses from Spain, reintroducing the species to the West. Today's herds are descendants of those Spanish steeds, mixed with ranch horses that were turned out or escaped. 

The bloodlines include Thoroughbred, Morgan, Standard Breed, Arabian, Bashkir Curly, Pinto, Appaloosa, Quarter and several work horse breeds, maybe even a little Clydesdale. 

 I am not an expert, so I can't pinpoint breeds; Photo: Scott Stevens

Although the brochures tout the Pilot Butte Horses as wild-looking, I thought they looked more like domestic horses than other Wild Horses I have seen. 

To me, this Horse in Bighorn Canyon, Montana, looks wilder; 2016

I suspect the Pilot Butte Horses are more related to livestock released in the area in the 1800s by cattle ranchers than to the older Spanish stock.

A real  beauty

Wild horses have no natural predators other than an occasional Mountain Lion, which can result in overpopulation, especially since the population can increase as much as 40 percent in a good year. The Pilot Butte herd is managed by the BLM, which conducts a periodic census and culls the herd to prevent overgrazing and death from starvation, dehydration and the elements. of course, culling Wild Horses is controversial. I would prefer more natural predators.

Three of the seven

Based on my reading, seven was a pretty poor showing, but it was better than the previous day's zero. Plus, we stuck to the main road rather than taking any of the many smaller offshoot roads. We had already had a flat tire!

The horses were a bit skittish, but did stick around long enough to be photographed.

This one seemed more interested than the others

It was a quick stop, but a nice ending to a great trip.

Trip date: September 29-October 4, 2020