Wild Horses - Onaqui Mountains, Utah

The Onaqui Mountains are in southeastern Tooele County, Utah, in between Dugway on the west side and Vernon on the east side. There is an HMA (Herd Management Area) that includes the foothills between Rush Valley and Vernon, going 30 miles southwestward to the Simpson Mountains. The Onaqui Mountain herd is about 450 horses. I had some friends that posted pictures on Facebook of these horses and then looked up information about the herd here. 

This is my favorite photo, near Simpson Springs. The vast unoccupied background with two beautiful horses in the foreground. This first string of photos were my favorites with nice backdrops. 

An array of beautiful horses near Simpson Springs. The black and white horse, to the left, was particularly striking. 

Another nice mountain backdrop with a colorful, though bedraggled, horse in the foreground. 

I took two of my granddaughters, Squirrel and Bug (their internet names) on this adventure. We drove through Tooele, Stockton and Rush Valley on Hwy 36, going south, then took the Fish Springs Wildlife Refuge and Pony Express Route to the west (right), about one-half mile beyond mile marker 27. We then drove the gravel road 25 miles to Simpson Springs. Sightings were said to increase through the final half of the trip. 

This next grouping of photos are of this horse rolling around on the ground. 

We saw a group of about 10 or 15 horses about 100 yards off the road about five miles from Simpson Springs. At Simpson Springs we saw horses everywhere, I'm guessing there were probably about 75 spread out. It was over 100 degrees and I'm sure the heat drove them to the springs. 

Here are my granddaughters at Simpson Springs. 

I was impressed with how healthy the horses looked and the beautiful colors. I'm going to let the photos do most of the talking. 

Something about this photo I like. 

A beautiful stallion. 

This may be the same horse above with a beautiful mountain in the background. It is also featured in several other photos below. The horse was part of a group of three that I thought of as the trinity, or the first presidency. They just kind of seemed to be in charge. 

This horse stood in front of the car and raised its head and whinnied in an apparent challenge to us. He did it quite a while and prevented us from moving along the road.