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Peninsular Bighorn Sheep Drinks near Coyote Creek Jeep Trail

Peninsular Bighorn Sheep Drinks from Coyote Creek
near the Jeep Trail

On an October morning in 2005, we drove a mile and a half up the Coyote Canyon Jeep Trail when we noticed that there was water in the usually dry creekbed in front of us, so we stopped. The ground was muddy and we chose not to try to cross it. Instead, we parked just off the jeep trail south of a large Desert-Willow tree.

There were some other people there in two or three cars. They left as we pulled off our sneakers and changed into our hiking boots. Turning around and trying to look north through the tree, we thought we saw something brown, something that didn't belong there. We took a few steps to get a better look. What we saw was a Peninsular Bighorn Sheep.

Perhaps the sheep couldn't see through the tree any better than we could. Perhaps he thought he was all alone and it was safe for him to drink. Well, regardless, it was safe for him to drink.