Bighorn sheep sightings!

No, I didn't get up to the horses on Saturday morning.  After Friday afternoon's fall festival at school, I was totally exhausted, came home, ate dinner, and hubby and I had TWO bottles of sparkling wine.  That was one bottle too many.  Saturday morning I couldn't walk straight, let alone drive a "killer highway".  Nope.  I didn't even chance it.

But, by Sunday morning, I had recovered (and we had a homemade pasta dinner with our family!).  Hubby was, er...not feeling well himself, so he went back to sleep and I left the house at 7:30 a.m.

Past Vista Point is the bighorn sheep fence, which parallels Deep Canyon.  I hate to tell the guys, but the sheep have figured out the fence.  They simply go around and behind it.  I spotted two white BUTTS off the side of the road, on my way up, but there was NO turnout.  I went up about 1/4 mile and found a small area to pull completely off the road, so I parked there and hiked back to where I had spotted the bighorns.  Nope.  They were...GONE!  After all that effort, I was disappointed.  I looked around...NOTHING...NADA...ZILCH!  So, I turned to go back to my car (all the while dodging crazy car drivers zooming up the road!), but I spotted them again.  This time, they were on the OTHER side of the highway, up by the end of the fence.  They simply went behind it and continued on their way.

NOTE TO SELF:  DO NOT ever again wear Reeboks instead of your "horse boots".  My horse boots are a $39.99 pair of heavy-duty steel toed lace up boots from WalMart which have excellent padding and traction.  I had NO traction with the Reeboks.  I couldn't locate them yesterday morning, so I grabbed the Reeboks.  NEVER AGAIN!

AND, do NOT try to keep up with a bighorn.  You can't do it!  (I found out the hard way!).  They are much more agile and swift than we are.

Anyway, I followed (or tried to follow) them a little way.  Another car finally figured out what I was doing and he pulled over, too.  This fellow had a longer lens than mine (300 mm) and we talked for a bit, then we both set off after the bighorns.  There were two of them.  The younger one crossed back over the highway and then back again to join his companion (mother?)  I do believe that both of these were females as I didn't see any...er..."parts" dangling down.  Correct me if I am wrong, however!  :-)
The younger one easily came down a little cliff by the road and I got a photo of her crossing right next to the guy who stopped.  She was completely unafraid of him or the roadway.  FORTUNATELY no cars were coming as she crossed both times, but I was ready to wave them to SLOW DOWN!

I spent an hour watching this pair and I'll post more tomorrow about the big RAM I spotted coming down!

 Crossing the road.  I was ready to wave off any cars that came zipping by!

 Can you see the edge of the fence?  They simply went behind it and went on their way.

See the white butt?  That's what I spotted on the other side of the road...