Enchanted Lands

"HUGE MASSES OF DUST hung upon their rear, and marked their track across the plain; and even after they had passed entirely beyond the reach [of] vision, we could still see the dust, which they were throwing in vast clouds into the air, moving over the highlands.” - Overton Johnson in the 1800s

"THE APPROACH"

"The Approach"

Limited Edition image | McCullough Peaks Collection

McCullough Peaks HMA, Wyoming

In a chaos, of deafening sound, motion, and dust, over the crest of a hill

the herd approaches.

Some of my favorite images feature the harsh desert landscape, as much as the wild horses that inhabit it. The places where the wild mustangs live are desolate; country so tough that no one wants to be there - certainly not humans, and very few other species.

"THE APPROACH"

As David Phillips puts it, “…valleys too dry to farm and mountains too scraggly to log. Almost all of the land is sandwiched between the Sierra Nevada and the Rockies.” But there is a quiet peace and beauty to these arid landscapes, an enchantment that draws one back again and again. They are reminiscent of the Old West, the Pony Express, and the early settlers who sacrificed all to travel west in search of a new life. Though barren and dust covered, if we take the time to appreciate, here we find the beauty of the desert combined with the magnificence of the mustangs.