Byous Butte, and a bighorn sheep

Somebody commented on one of my Panoramio pictures that what I called Byous Butte was actually Hackberry Butte. I checked my maps and was pretty sure I was right, but decided to go out there and check it out anyway. After all, I hadn't been there for a few months.

This is Byous Butte.

To make a short story even shorter, I'm right. I figured out where Hackberry Butte is, too. It's at the end of a ridge and doesn't really seem distinguishable from that ridge, so I'm not sure why it's named like it's something seperate.

Hackberry Butte, framed by large saguaros.

As I hiked around out there, the clouds kept getting thicker until it was too gloomy for nice pictures. I went back to the truck and drove slowly back to town. I had seen a lot of traffic during the day, and a truck went by in the other direction just before I rounded a corner and came upon a bighorn sheep standing right next to the road. I slammed on the brakes and watched as it hopped uphill next to the road, and then stopped. It stayed there while I snapped a few quick pictures. It didn't run away when I rolled the window down more. It didn't move as I tried to get more comfortable. (Try getting pictures through the passenger window of something that's up on the side of a hill some time; my neck still hurts.)

Bighorn sheep posing for a picture.

After getting a couple dozen pictures, I decided I couldn't stand being in the cramped position I had to use any more. I turned the engine off, opened the door, and stood up. The sheep stayed right there. It looked at me now and then, and it looked around at voices I could hear up and down the road. After a while, it got bored and ambled off. I got a video of that. I'm not very good at pointing the camera for videos. I just can't get used to having to use the LCD for movies, despite having done that for the past 2 or 3 years. If you turn the volume up, you can hear crickets, image stabilization, and voices in the distance.

Bighorn sheep wanders off.

I'm pretty sure it's a female. The males have the large horns. If you search for images of bighorn sheep, 99% of what you find are males. Click below to see all of the pictures. There are a lot.

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