Wild horses Chad Banks, Rock Springs Chamber of Commerce
Wild horses have always been symbols of the West, living examples of a wide-open landscape and an untamed frontier spirit.
Horses were first seen in this country about 10,000 years ago, but for unknown reasons became extinct. They were not seen again for another 9,000 years when the Spanish reintroduced them in the 1500’s.
Current herds are descendents of those Spanish horses along with animals turned out by ranchers or enticed away from ranches by wild horse herds. Experience the wild horses on the Pilot Butte Wild Horse Scenic Loop Tour. Listen for the sound of hooves pounding. Look for manes flying in the wind. The Pilot Butte Wild Horse Scenic Loop Tour is something you and your family will never forget.
In addition to the wild horses, visitors have a chance to see an abundance of wildlife and take in some of the best scenic vistas in Wyoming.
This is a relatively dry area with seemingly little vegetation. However, it is home to a surprising array of wild creatures. These include wild horses, antelope, desert elk, deer, rabbits, coyotes, hawks, eagles and sage grouse, among others.
The tour route offers several scenic overlooks of the area’s prominent features, such as Pilot Butte, Boar’s Tusk, Killpecker Sand Dunes, Steamboat Mountain, North and South Table Mountains, Leucite Hills, Aspen Mountain, Wilkins Peak, the Overland Trail and the Union Pacific railroad corridors, the Wyoming, Wind River and Uinta mountain ranges and the cities of Rock Springs and Green River.
Wild Horse Joseph Berke
Most wild horses in Wyoming are located in the southwestern quarter of the state. The Rock Springs BLM is the headquarters of the Wild Horse Program in Wyoming. The appropriate management level for wild horses in Wyoming is approximately 6,000. 2,500 of these horses are in the Rock Springs District.
Federal and private lands form a checkerboard pattern in the Rock Springs District. The existence of the herds of wild horses is a credit to the private landowners of this area who do not fence their land, thus allowing the horses to wander as necessary for food, water, and shelter in the winter as nature provides.
The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) conducts a periodic census of the wild horses to determine how many animals must be removed from the range. As a result there are fewer cases of injury or death from starvation, dehydration, and susceptibility to the elements. The horses are gathered at various times throughout the year.
Wild horses have no true natural predators other than an occasional mountain lion. As a result, populations can increase at a very high rate. This rate of increase is generally about 20% per year, with good years topping 40%. When populations of wildlife, wild horses, and domestic livestock exceed the capabilities of their habitat, the environment begins to suffer. If prolonged, it leads to poor rangeland and an overall decline in the health of the wild horses.
Writer M. Scott Momaday once waxed poetic about Devils Tower, proclaiming "There are things in nature that engender an awful quiet in the heart of man." President Theodore Roosevelt showed his love of preservation (and an economy of words) when he declared this "lofty and isolated rock" a national monument 100 years ago. Thirty years ago, Steven Spielberg celebrated the monument's otherworldly appeal by choosing Devils Tower as the UFO landing site in his movie Close Encounters of the Third Kind. read more
Wyoming is a vast, open country sprinkled with sagebrush, pronghorn antelope and an air of freedom unmatched anywhere else in the lower 48.
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