Pandemic Diaries - Year 3, Month 3 - The Trek North, The Highlights - Nevada Part I

9 June 2022

 

I mentioned in the last post that the highlight of Nevada was at our first stop, Boulder City, right near Lake Mead and Hoover Dam.  Not that we visited the lake, which is very low.  Nor did we visit the dam, a wonder of engineering.  No, we enjoyed staying at the Hoover Dam Lodge, where we played a bit in their casino, and the very delicious food at their café.  

 

The café is named the Bighorn Café, decorated with photos of bighorn sheep.  So of course we asked our friendly waitstaff about the bighorns, who

explained that the sheep come out of the mountainsand hang out in a park in town, nibbling the grass and ignoring the tourists who come to watch the sheep.

 

How could we not?  We got directions to Hemenway Park, which was quite easy to find.  There, on the grass right by the parking lot, were maybe ten to fifteen bighorns, munching away and yes, ignoring the people who were watching them.

 

I started taking photos, and suddenly these big sheep stopped eating and turned as one, like boats in a shifting tide, facing the large rocky hill on one side of the park.  A huge horde of smaller bighorns, possibly the females, followed by all the cute little baby bighorns, came thundering down from the larger hill across the street, stampeded across the road, and came running along a path at the base of the hill!!!  Seriously, maybe thirty or more sheep in this crowd!  They certainly got the attention of the tourists as well as the large sheep in the park, most likely males, stood at attention and watch this wave of bighorns come running in!

 

SO exciting!  They were running so fast I couldn't get a decent photo, they were blurs, so I gave up and just enjoyed this sight!  Wow!

 

And the rest of the time we just wandered around, watching the bighorn sheep (who really look more like goats with giant croissant-like horns curling down around their faces).  They ignored us, we kept our distance, they walked nearby as they continued looking for the best patches of grass, and I took photos.  A few even used the park benches as scratching posts!

 

That took about an hour, because I kept trying to get a sheep to look straight into the camera.  Yeah, they don't listen to requests.  Maybe they don't speak English.  Or they don't like to be photographed.  Who knows, it took a while to get a few portraits of bighorns.

 

But that was about it.  An amazing and unexpected sight, to see normally elusive wild animals just strolling around the town's park, to be within three feet of these incredible sheep.  

 

The gorgeous backdrop became secondary - Lake Mead, shining blue and bright in the distance.  Rocky craggy hills all around us.  Purple mountains in the far distance.  It really was a special place, and an experience to treasure.

 

And you know me - lots of photos.  But I promise, these are the best photos!