Rock Springs

The temperature today was predicted to reach 90 in Roosevelt, so we tried for a little higher ride than the one yesterday. We went about 2.5 miles up the Elkhorn Loop road and pulled off on an old two track on the left at about 8000 feet. Parking there, we rode up a beautiful meadow sprinkled with blue, red, gold and white wildflowers. Serviceberry and Chokecherry were in bloom, along with sunrays, death Camas, penstemon, bluebells, paintbrush, etc. We continued along the old road through shady aspen groves.
Eventually we came to areas burned in the Neola fire. We had to weave around blowdown, in and out of the blackened skeleton trees to get through. The ground beneath the blackened trees was coming back with green grass.

We found Rock Springs without much trouble. Surprisingly, the springs were marked with a wrought iron sign placed behind a tire used as a trough. An eagle scout project, maybe? The main spring was enclosed in a buck and rail fence, which Daisy easily climbed through to wallow in the water.
Daisy had a great time chasing deer. A couple of times we saw deer bounding away from her, leaping high over the sage, while she followed the best she could, like a low-flying rocket. She had to go mainly on scent since she couldn’t jump high enough to see over the sage.
On the way back, we had great views of Buck Ridge, where we rode yesterday. The temperature was seventy at the trailhead when we started near noon, and probably close to 80 by the time we returned. The ride was six miles, 1600 feet, completed in about 2.5 hours riding time.
This was a weeny one compared to yesterday, which was fine with both me and the horses...