Happy Vernal Equinox everybody, and welcome spring!
Last week I had to spend a little bit of time in Colorado Springs, CO. I was there with someone who had never been to Colorado, and who really wanted to get out and into the mountains, but we had almost no time for anything fun. Best we could do (and it’s not a bad option), was to go to Garden of the Gods, a popular park featuring multi-colored sandstone fins and other formations, for a quick hike.
Wouldn’t you know it, no more than thirty seconds from the car, we walked up on a small herd of bighorn rams who were clearly not perturbed by all the people standing around taking pictures.
I’ve never seen them in previous trips, I’m not sure if they’re normal residents of the park. I do know that seeing bighorn sheep is not exactly easy to do… so my first-timer friend was particularly lucky, and I was by association.
Get Out There!
Flying Squirrel Outdoors 
We visited Colorado last April and spent a day in Garden of the Gods. It’s a lovely park. How fun to spot a herd of bighorn rams.
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I didn’t really know they did that – I know several animals have “bachelor groups”, but it did surprise me to see a bunch of rams hanging out. Too many documentaries highlighting the one time of the year they’re fighting all the time, I guess!
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I have a fun story about bighorn sheep. There is a small park outside Boulder City, Nevada near Lake Mead (Hemenway) that is famous for its herd of bighorn sheep that come down out of the mountains to feast on its green grass in the summer. I’ve been there a couple of times. Once we were taken by a local who told us this story: The trail the bighorn sheep follow down to the park goes by a person’s house (which is right next to the park). The owner put a new metal garage door on his house. The lead ram of the herd was walking by when he saw a large ram staring back at him. What was he to do. He referred back and charged the ram butting it with his big horns… several times to make sure the other ram knew who was boss. The garage owner had one heck of a time persuading his insurance agent what had happened to his garage door.
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Great story! We started hoping we’d see a couple rams getting into a little head butting, but without any ewes around they didn’t seem to be particularly motivated. It was definitely just the bros hanging out!
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Yeah, they tend to behave themselves until the ewes come into heat. Of course they may take exception to a new rival that doesn’t know the rules. Grin.
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rams purty much only butyt heads Durning the rut/breeding season. Batchor group is gods way to keep rams from competing with ewes and lambs for winter forage
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Thanks, I’m an East Coast guy and don’t have much experience with them. Makes a lot of sense though, appreciate it!
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