Rocky Mountain Bighorn Sheep, Hell’s Canyon
We awoke this morning to a beautiful blue sky and green hills in the Snake River canyons. Clarkston, Washington was our berthing spot. After breakfast and a talk about the Lewis and Clark party’s experiences in this part of the world, we boarded jet boats for a thrilling ride about 60 miles up the Snake River, into the Hell’s Canyon National Recreation Area.
Hell’s Canyon is a land of enormous scale. Rocks and cliffs are interspersed with grassy landings and vast upland benches. This diversity of habitats supports an astonishing richness of plants and animals. Some of the plants are endemics, found nowhere else in the world. At this season, the hills are in their finest dress, almost glowing with verdant life.
We were extremely fortunate to see this pair of young Rocky Mountain bighorn rams, right above the water’s edge. Still a bit scruffy from their winter coats, they were in fine fettle. They gave us a demonstration of fancy footwork, scrambling up rocky faces, leaping across gaps in the rocks, and generally showing the efficacy of their padded feet.
Lewis and Clark first saw bighorn sheep (the Audubon variety) near the mouth of the Yellowstone River in April, 1805. Their fascination with this delightful animal was very much like our own; another similarity with today’s journey In the Wake of Lewis and Clark.
We awoke this morning to a beautiful blue sky and green hills in the Snake River canyons. Clarkston, Washington was our berthing spot. After breakfast and a talk about the Lewis and Clark party’s experiences in this part of the world, we boarded jet boats for a thrilling ride about 60 miles up the Snake River, into the Hell’s Canyon National Recreation Area.
Hell’s Canyon is a land of enormous scale. Rocks and cliffs are interspersed with grassy landings and vast upland benches. This diversity of habitats supports an astonishing richness of plants and animals. Some of the plants are endemics, found nowhere else in the world. At this season, the hills are in their finest dress, almost glowing with verdant life.
We were extremely fortunate to see this pair of young Rocky Mountain bighorn rams, right above the water’s edge. Still a bit scruffy from their winter coats, they were in fine fettle. They gave us a demonstration of fancy footwork, scrambling up rocky faces, leaping across gaps in the rocks, and generally showing the efficacy of their padded feet.
Lewis and Clark first saw bighorn sheep (the Audubon variety) near the mouth of the Yellowstone River in April, 1805. Their fascination with this delightful animal was very much like our own; another similarity with today’s journey In the Wake of Lewis and Clark.
