This picture is not a telephoto shot. The bighorn ram was six feet from my open driver’s side window, so I whipped out my iPhone 6s Plus and let him have it. The encounter was thrilling. We usually see them on the opposite side of whichever gorge we’re hiking. For me, at least, being this close is simply unheard of. I thought he was going to stick his head in the window. This looks like a diorama with a stuffed sheep, but it’s not.
Bighorns in the Road
Hey brown eyes
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When I last hiked the trail in Taos Ski Valley up to Bull of the Woods meadow (some years ago) and beyond, several big horn sheep were very friendly and walked with me within touching distance for a while.
Great pic! Saw a bunch at cebola mesa yesterday. They sure have an amazing balancing act!!
Cebola Mesa! I had the ghastliest driving-in-mud experience there once. There’s a chapter about it in my first ebook, which by the way is available for free download to anyone who joins the mailing list I haven’t even used yet. (What a deal.)
I love seeing these animals. I don’t really know why.
Aha! Well, I honestly haven’t heard anything like that. Anytime I’ve been near them, they’ve moved away. Not skittish like pronghorns, though. That’s a great story, thanks for sharing.
What a handsome fellow. Have only seen them as specs in Alaska. Must have been astounding. Yowza!
I haven’t seen them yet. Every time we drive beyond the horseshoe we look for them. Your fascination with them has drawn them in. I’ll keep looking.
We’ve often seen them (at a distance!) from the road that goes from Pilar to the Taos Junction Bridge, the stretch that used to be called Orilla Verde. State Road 570, I think. That’s where I took the picture. The Slide Trail from the bridge up to the parking lot on County Road 110 (out past the country club) is another good place to see them. We go walking from that lot to the Cascabel Trail along the Rio Pueblo Gorge and sometimes see them across the gorge on Pueblo land. I also saw quite a large herd once close to the road on the Taos side of the Rio Grande Gorge Bridge. We’ve never seen them from the main road south (68).