Three Wild Horse Herds in One Day

Piceance-East Douglas Stallion

Our next stop was the Little Book Cliffs Wild Horse Management Area (HMA) in DeBeque Canyon near the town of Cameo.  This wild horse herd is small, about 60 horses, but we had high hopes of viewing some of the bands.

We had assumed these horses, like the Spring Creek Basin herd, would be visible from the roadside.  Instead we found rising cliffs on either side of a deeply rutted 4-wheel-drive road.  We crossed more than a half dozen arroyos in the short distance we traveled through the canyon.  Unfortunately, power lines had been laid along side the roadbed, meandering throughout the canyon as far as the eye could see… hardly the backdrop I had hoped to find.  It is impossible for a photographer to make even a wild horse look wild when a power line is in the background.

The area is quite unlike most of the wild horse herd ranges that we have seen in the past.  Rather than open, arid land and rolling terrain, the canyon walls hemmed any potential view except ahead or behind… unless the horses looked down from the plateaus above us.  Clumps of junipers dotted the landscape, easily high enough to hide several wild horses.  With so many arroyos and a number of dark clouds gathering, flash flooding would be imminent in a hard rain.  We determined that we needed to find other access to these horses.  We discovered as we backtracked that we had passed the Coal Canyon Trailhead.  The trail map indicated that the hike was three miles, one way.  It was already early in the afternoon and too late for us to make a six-mile hike.

The next best access into the Little Book Cliffs range was through the town of DeBeque, nearly an hour’s drive away.  Since this herd was small, we decided to go on to the two wild horse herds between Rifle and Meeker, the Piceance-East Douglas Herd and the White River Wild Horse Herd.

By the time we arrived to the HMA entrance road south of Meeker, it was close to evening.  David was using cryptic notes I had found online to navigate.  The BLM land in this area is replete with new oil and gas wells and operations equipment.  Because of all the industry, we found the gravel roads well groomed and easily accessible by a sedan.  We zigzagged through a myriad of roads, finding only three horses grazing beneath several tanks and more power lines. 

With the sun setting, we found an old hunting camp tucked away off a side road and opted to spend the night there.  It was a trashy area but secure.  

The next morning we saw a lone stallion as we exited the Piceance-East Douglas HMA.  During our travels the evening before, we had found few stud piles or other signs of horses along the roads.  We figured that the oil and gas operations had run the horses into less accessible areas.  We decided to drive into Meeker, hoping to find a BLM office to help us with better directions to view these wild horses. 

Meeker was a most pleasant stop for us.  Folks at the Meeker General Mercantile gave us all the information we needed.  We had a great breakfast, filled our propane and water tanks, and had showers at a local motel.  To our surprise and disappointment, we discovered that Meeker is home to the national sheepdog trials… disappointing only because they had taken place the weekend before we arrived.  What fun it would have been to watch the dogs work!

We drove by the BLM office, but found it closed.  With so much oil and gas industry in the area, we had little hopes of seeing many horses.  Additionally, we found that we should have entered the HMA from the north (from Rangely) rather than the south.  After calculating our drive time to the northern entrance, we decided that in order to make the Sand Wash Basin Rendevous, it would be best to abandon the effort and push northward.

Dear Friends, Please forgive our delay in posting this trip.  We are having extreme difficulty finding internet access or service that will allow photo uploads.  More to come!