Salt River Wild Horse Area
Mesa, AZ
An area along the Lower Salt River near Bush Highway where herds of wild horses roam freely along the riverbanks. The Salt River wild horses are descendants of horses released or escaped over the past century and are protected by Arizona state law. The horses are frequently seen grazing, crossing the river, and interacting in family bands.
Photography Guide
- Best Time
- golden hour
- Crowds
- Quiet
- Shot Types
- portraitwidedetail
- Best Seasons
- springfallwinter
Author's Comments
There is a kind of patience this place asks for that I did not understand the first time I came. I drove the length of Bush Highway twice, scanning the cottonwoods, and saw nothing. The horses move on their own schedule and the river is long. You do not find them by looking harder. You find them by slowing down. The photograph I keep chasing here is a January one, late afternoon, the light coming low across the Sonoran scrub and turning the river the color of weak tea. A band of horses crossing in single file, the water breaking white around their legs, the Goldfield Mountains soft and blue behind them. I have made versions of this image and I have missed it more times than I have made it. The horses cross when they cross. The light is what it is. A long lens is not optional. Two hundred millimeters is the floor and four hundred is better, partly because the horses deserve their distance and partly because compression is what makes the desert read the way it feels. Up close with a wide lens, the scene scatters. Pulled in tight, the cottonwoods stack against the saguaros and the river becomes a ribbon and the whole thing composes itself. Coon Bluff in the hour before sunset, in November or February, with the light raking in from the west and the herd grazing in the flats below the bluff. That is the moment. Bring more time than you think you need. Bring water. Do not approach. The photograph you want is the one where the horses have forgotten you are there.
Gallery
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Phon D Sutton Recreation Area
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Saguaro Lake
A reservoir on the Salt River formed by Stewart Mountain Dam, surrounded by towering red and orange canyon walls. The Butcher Jones Recreation Area provides beach access with saguaro-studded cliffs rising directly from the shoreline. Wild horses from the Salt River herd are frequently seen along the lake's shores and surrounding desert.
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Usery Mountain Regional Park
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