Saturday, August 14, 2010

Wheeler Peak sheep adventure

Wheeler Peak (13,161 ft/4011 m) is the highest mountain in New Mexico. Mountain Man and I picked a gloriously beautiful and blustery day yesterday to hike it. I don't have a good photo of the peak itself, but I do have a photo of myself knitting there!


The most exciting part of our 16-mile hike was my encounter with a bighorn sheep. Last year, we saw nearly a dozen sheep and even found tufts of their fiber in a high mountain meadow. This year, I just saw this one sweet young sheep ...


But it let me get incredibly close. Here's Mountain Man's view of me walking up to the sheep. It was one of those animal encounters that leaves you breathless and in love with the natural world.


As for Isis, it was the fat, furry, squeaking marmots that made her day.

4 comments:

  1. Acorn to Oak1:37 PM

    Wow! Your hike sounds totally awesome! The views are so beautiful and I can totally understand the "breathless" part of walking toward that sheep with the precious face. Totally amazing! I love that your doggy even found great things on the hike. How fun! :-D

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  2. lexa8:57 PM

    Awesome!

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  3. Turtle1:59 PM

    so fun and cool! I so miss our weekend backpacking adventures, hubbys knee is still in healing mode though for now, so skiing and backpacking have been put on hold this year. ;(

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  4. Rachel8:31 AM

    Very cool...the little cutie! I've only worked with bighorns a small amount (my husband did his PhD on them with a study in WY)...but one day I hope to do more.

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