Bighorn sheep sighted!

I drove over to Temecula Friday morning.  Our son wanted some equipment to clean up his yard, so off I went with a rake, shovel, and our weed eater. He ordered a new electric lawnmower and used it and I used to weeder along the edges of his lawn.  They have to do their own maintenance in their new rental house.

I drove back to the desert Saturday before noon.  A huge dust storm from Arizona was moving up into our valley and I spotted all the dust on my way down.  The humidity was HORRIBLE.  It was so dark that cars were driving with their lights on!  I made it home, drank a TON of iced tea, let the dog out, and sat down and read some Facebook posts.  Turns out, somebody posted that it was hailing where Highway 74 splits and 371 goes down to Anza, so back I went, up the mountain.

I didn't run into any rain and my weather app wasn't showing any activity, but I DID see a small herd of 4 bighorns.  One male and 3 females...I saw one of them sitting on top of a rock, so I pulled over.  Another lady slowed down and I showed her where they were, but everybody else kept on going.  Oh, well...

I took a bunch of photos of them (thinking there were only 3) and continued on up to Pinyon.  That area had a huge downpour Friday afternoon and I could see where the water had run off.  I turned around and spotted the herd again on my way down, so I pulled over to take more photos.  This time I saw the male.  He was quite possessive of his females and really didn't want me taking photos!  There were 2 females and a younger sheep.  He kept them moving, but a couple of cars did also stop to take photos.

 This is the one I saw driving UP the mountain.  Can you see the legs of the other one below?

 Papa...

 Papa again

 Papa didn't like me.

 His two females

He chases them away from the highway...good idea!