Valley of Fire is a state park in the desert about 60 miles northeast of Las Vegas. It was named for the deep red rock mountains the cover this area and is another one of my favorite places. I was here last October, but the campground I was planning on staying at in California cancelled on me, so decided this was a good place to come back to for a few days as an alternate.
Just driving through the park is a treat.
Gorgeous! Why go to Las Vegas when you can come here??
Anyway, I slept in this morning and was just getting ready to eat the breakfast I fixed, when I saw several bighorn sheep at the end of the campground roadway, so I jumped up, threw on my sweatshirt, and walked down the road. However, by then, they had disappeared. So, I went back to my breakfast, and in a few minutes, one of the ladies I had asked about where they had gone, came knocking on my door.
She said they were down near Site #7 butting horns over a broken water faucet! She said you could hear the thumps. So, put on my sweatshirt and grabbed my camera, and walked as fast as I could to that site to see the action.
However, by the time I got there, the action was over with. There was a herd of nine male bighorns--females were hiding in the distant rocks having their lambs, I was told, so the males were hanging out together.
The cause of the fighting was a campsite faucet that had a crack in it, thus spraying precious water around. There has not been rain in this area for almost a year, so the sheep are very thirsty, although the ranger did tell me that the park service has three large water tanks in the park. They fill with rainwater, but also the park service brings in water via helicopters when there is no rain. In any case, the sheep still want water, much as the elk did in Grand Canyon.
Bighorn sheep have horns that grow all their lives. They do not shed them and grow new ones each year, as deer and elk do, so you can tell the ages of sheep by their horns. The one on the upper left, has small, skinny horns, so is younger than the other two. The one on the upper right is older, indicated by the thicker and longer horns.
But the guy on the bottom has very thick horns that are curled in a complete circle. They also have had the tips either worn off or broken off from fighting. And he has a lot of scars on him, so he is probably a really old sheep.
Check out the closeup of this guy's horns. He also has a cut above his eye, no doubt from the earlier head-butting over the water.
Found this interesting article on how to age bighorn sheep: https://www.gohunt.com/read/skills/how-to-accurately-age-bighorn-sheep#gs.p7ja82
This guy is also not afraid of anyone and does not hesitate to try to stare you down.
The ranger has brought a bucket and filled it with water for the sheep. You can see the small spray of water from the faucet. While this old sheep is approaching the water, the ranger is working to turn the water off at the source so he can work on the faucet.
Note that while the old guy is drinking, the rest of the herd is just watching. He was the only one getting close to the faucet and bucket. They certainly knew their place.
Now the ranger has a problem. The old sheep is standing about five feet from him and staring at him. Even when the ranger moved the bucket about 10' away, the sheep still focused on him and the faucet. Even waving his arms, yelling, and banging his wrench on the metal pipe did not make the old sheep flinch. Obviously, the real owner of the faucet was the sheep, not the ranger.
And, of course, the rest of the herd was still just watching.
Once the faucet was replaced and no longer spraying water, even the old guy got bored and went back to grazing and resting. Excitement over.
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