Good luck has been on my side lately with the local bighorn, and I was really happy to find them again today at one of their favorite hangouts. I really took my time with them, and it seems to have paid off. In total, I spent just over four hours with the herd and after going through two full camera batteries and nearly 2,500 photos... this may go down as my best bighorn encounter to date. None have ever been closer, but the Nov. 2023 encounter was really special, too, so it's tough to choose a favorite.

Never before, though, have I been fully accepted into a group like this. Upon first seeing each other, I was around 120 yards away from the three largest rams and the ewes were considerably further away. Very, very slowly I moved about 30-40 feet closer to the males and then I stayed put for a long while. Eventually they got up and grazed towards the females. After the rams were out of sight, I slowly walked to a ledge so that I could figure out where they went. A few were much further down with some other ewes, but to my shock -- the biggest ram was only around 20-30 feet away. He saw me and wasn't bothered at all. He would eat some grass, look at me, eat some grass, look around at his herd and go back to eating again. He approached to within about 10 feet at first and then slowly went down the cliffs about 80 feet away I would estimate. I walked a few more steps to a better lookout and pretty much stayed in place at this point for the duration. The ewes began coming closer, and three of the males came back up to me. The largest ram walked up to around 4 feet away, and I had to ask him out loud just how close he planned on coming! He was being extraordinarily calm and gentle. I genuinely think he would have made contact with me if I had let him, but he stepped back when I perked up and talked to him. At that point, both of my batteries had drained to zero and it was time to go. The three males stood close by and watched as I got up and walked away from them. Hopefully they'll let me photo them again soon!