I am getting ready for my vacation in September. Two weeks of hiking so I have been in training. I have not been taking as many pictures because I have been speed hiking to prepare myself. I did take my camera out today and in spite of rushing across the landscape before the temperature exceeded 90, I was lucky to see quite a bit to photograph.

Ran into two coyotes and was fortunate that I saw them before they saw me. I think the sun was in their eyes and I was able to get off a few snaps before they hightailed it out of there. Noticed some wild horses coming down to water across the river and with the water between us they were fairly relaxed about my presence. My concerns about the drought taking a toll on them have unfortunately been warrented. These pictures are pretty hard to look at. This particular band does not seem to be feeding well at all. You can see every rib, hip bones are jutting out and you can count their vertebrae in their backbones. There is plenty of water to drink but the lack of snow and rain this spring meant very little grew for them to eat. They are not going into the hard months in  good shape.

I almost ran into this doe while she was doing a trim job on the lower branches of a cottonwood. I actually saw more wildlife today than I do when I am trying to be stealthy. Not sure what can be learned from that!