Galloping across the prairie with manes and tails flying and hooves kicking up dust, there is nothing more iconic in the West than a wild horse. Whether you spot them racing like the wind, clustered around a waterhole or grazing contentedly, wild horses evoke a bit of the Old West, erasing the 21st and 20th centuries and shuttling you back to the 1800s.
One of the best spots to board this Western time machine is in southwestern Wyoming, just a tad north of Rock Springs on a landscape of sagebrush, native grasses and rock. Here, on the mesa-like summit of White Mountain, the Pilot Butte Wild Horse Scenic Loop Tour skitters roughly 23 miles along good, gravel-base roads. Travel this route and along the way you gain not only many chances to spy roans, blacks, paints, appaloosas and sorrels, but panoramic views of the Wyoming Range to the west, the Wind River Range to the northeast and the Uinta Range to the south.
Placed out along the route are a handful of kiosks that delve into the origin of the horses (most are descendants of horses long ago turned out by the region's ranchers) and reflect on the area's geography and history. The first, on the northern shoulder of White Mountain where the route begins in earnest on County Road 53, skims the history of wild horses in North America going back to the Pleistocene
Mother and baby Rick Carpenter
Epoch. It notes that the species vanished from the continent about 10,000 years ago and then returned in 1519 when Spaniard Hernando Cortez brought horses back. By 1720, wild horses were established in Wyoming, where they first served the Plains Indians, then the mountain men and finally ranchers and Pony Express riders.
The horses, of course, could care less about such history. But the kiosks add another dimension to the loop tour. Some detail the geology of the Red Desert to the east and the Rock Springs/Green River area to the south; another mentions that Butch Cassidy spent time here; one discusses the trona industry that today fuels the area's economy; another explains the checkerboard makeup of public and private land ownership.
Though they say the best time to look for some of the 800-1,000 horses in the 392,000-acre White Mountain Management Area is from sunrise until about 9 a.m. or 10 a.m., no one gave that timetable to the horses. It's a bit after 10 a.m. as I leave U.S. 191 some 14 miles north of Interstate 80 and head back south on County Road 53. Less than four miles into my journey, an appaloosa sidles alongside the road, mouthing a clump of grass and showing little concern for my four-cylinder steed. Another mile later, half-a-dozen bays glance in my direction as I slowly ease down the road, taking in not only the horses, but
Wild horses near Rock Springs Egret Communications
the sage-tinged air and the distant views.
It's that way the rest of the morning and into the afternoon as band after band of horses dots the rolling sagebrush landscape that's rumpled across the mountaintop. At one point I pass a mare and her colt standing near the road, while perhaps 100 yards to the west another band of horses glares at me. Barely a mile farther another small group stands quite contentedly next to the road.
Horses aren't the only animals on the landscape, of course, and pronghorn antelope, with their tawny-and-white coats, coal-black horns and skittish nature, appear from time to time. While the horses frequently return my stare, the pronghorns take one short look, shift into high gear and bound away. Sage grouse, coyotes and rabbits also live here, while overhead there's always a chance to spot hawks and eagles.
From start to finish, the loop covers roughly 50 miles and can easily take half-a-day, especially if you pack a lunch to enjoy along the way. Be sure, of course, to carry plenty of water, binoculars, a full tank of gas and a spare tire.
To begin the loop from Rock Springs, take exit 104 off Interstate 80 to U.S. 191 and continue north 14 miles to County Road 14. Turn left and head 2.5 miles to County Road 53, also on your left. From Green River, exit Interstate 80 at Flaming Gorge Way, turn left onto Trona Drive at the next intersection and follow it north as it turns into a dirt road and passes beneath the interstate.
When you go, check with the U.S. Bureau of Land Management at 307-352-0256 to see if they're conducting any wild horse roundups or auctions. At their Rock Springs Field Office along U.S. 191 just 1.5 miles north of Interstate 80, they've built a viewing area overlooking the corrals where the roundups conclude and the auctions are held.
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