Fjord Bighorn Rams

Reintroduced sheep lead the way to opportunity.

- Jason Brooks

As the sun set against the far hillside, the white rumps of three mule deer stood out against the shadows that were setting in. The deer fed over a ridge and out of sight at a distance where I couldn’t determine if they were a group of bucks or a doe with yearling fawns. A hike up that hillside the next morning before daylight put me into position to intercept the deer as they fed out of the timber, where they bedded the night before. Soon the shapes of three animals could be made out in the early morning light. Thinking it must be the deer, I peered through a binocular. The deer turned out to be bighorn sheep – three young rams grazing across the open slope.

Most hunters might be upset at themselves for being fooled into believing the sheep were mule deer. For me, the sight of the sheep was mesmerizing, and I couldn’t believe what was unfolding before me. Bighorns once roamed freely on these slopes for thousands of years, feeding native people who stalked them with sinew-backed bows in the cliffs above a lake that was formed millions of years ago.