empty but for all the wild

we took a drive up north a bit, to check on a friend's cabin. a winter check...making sure it was doing well since it was last used this summer. the cabin is just over the border in colorado. but you take a small highway to a dirt road, to another dirt road, to another. you feel more solitary at each turn. and there you are, in the middle of wild lands, at a cabin that sits on the edge of the rio grande gorge. this isn't a place you think of having an address. this is a place you choose because you need to escape having an address for awhile.

oh, and the wild ponies roam the mesa. these amazing animals that we think of as domestic, and yet for generations they have roamed. (seeing them for the first time, felt a little magical for me.) 

after opening the gate, and heading down the very snowy driveway, we might have both been holding our breath a little, hoping all was well with the cabin. and it was. 

even out here, having private property can be a challenge. and the horses aren't interested in fences staying up.

the rio was frozen. this formidable river, just a silent figure. 

tracks of coyote, conejitos and the horses were all we found of any cabin visitors. which was a relief. the cabin sits, with sunny windows, on a view to the deep gorge below. we sat on the sunny side of the porch (it was warmer outside in the sun than inside) and ate sandwiches. d. noticed a winged shadow on the frozen river below, and jumped up, knowing it must be a bald eagle. we both ran to the other side of the cabin, catching that huge bird in flight away. mighty wings that eagle has. 

blue sky, purple mountains and gold & snowy plains.

wild horses, wild land, and a bald eagle. 

it was a great morning adventure.