Upper Pasture

We saw a wild burro herd on the next day's ride.  The bad burro was not among them.  Note that several of the burros have deformed ears - maybe from fights, or from frostbite.  This group ran from us, so Coco was not scared.

This beautiful desert spring was not on the map.

While we were exploring the water source, Boss walked into a pool and started pawing.  We had to catch him before he decided to lie down in the water and roll around a bit.  That would've been pleasant for him, but a little hard on the saddle.

The shaded pools were partially covered in ice and snow.

Our destination was an area known as the Upper Pasture.  An old brush fence had been built to keep livestock on one end of the plateau.  It doesn't look much like a pasture now, but it's probably been overgrazed.  Once, it may have had good grass.

Most of the "pasture" is bordered by cliffs, making access difficult. Rumor has it that Butch Cassidy and gang spent time here, training horses in between train or bank robberies.  His gang was known for having an excellent string of horses that could outrun a possee easily.  We looked around, but saw no sign of an old camp.

This is the view looking down from the Upper Pasture to a spring-fed canyon below. In a pinch, outlaws may have been able to skid down the sandslide on the left.  We didn't try it. We'd already had a 25 mile ride with 2800 feet of elevation gain and loss, over some very rough terrain.  That was enough adventure for one day.