The Bishop CA Area And Bighorn Sheep

Dale Matson

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Mature Bighorn Sheep

I think if I was a young unmarried man, I would live in Bishop CA. There is wonderful hiking, backpacking and photo opportunities from Bishop west on Highway 168 and from areas just a short run up and down Highway 395. There are three mountains in the eastern Sierra that serve as landmarks for Bishop. They are Mounts Humphreys, Basin and Tom. In the White Mountains east of Bishop, there is White Mountain Peak, the third highest mountain in California.

 Mounts Humphreys, Basin And Tom

 Mt. Tom Canyon View West

The late landscape photographer Galen Rowell had his home in the Bishop area and the Mountain Light Gallery in Bishop displayed his wonderful photographs. Unfortunately, the gallery is now closed and the building vacant.

The area is very picturesque and loaded with photo opportunities, I can’t resist spending a couple of days a month looking for bighorn sheep and doing recons for backpacking during the summer and fall months. There are more Mule deer than you can shake a stick at.

My most recent trip began as a disappointment the first day as I drove north after coming over Tehachapi. My usual spots near Mt. Whitney, Black Canyon and Sawmill Canyon, while great for photos, seemed empty regarding Sierra Nevada Bighorn Sheep. That does not mean they weren’t there however.

I phoned the “Sheep Whisperer” Steve Yeager, a third generation Bishop native and he agreed to spend some time with me the following day. This was good news because without his keen eyes and tracking ability, the second day would just be another day of landscape photos. I did get the opportunity to recon the trailhead for Birch Lake near Big Pine. I hope to go there this summer for photos of Birch Lake and massive Birch Mountain (13,609’).

We met near unincorporated Laws CA where I left my truck to ride with Steve. His Tacoma can be easily identified by the lovely “Sierra Pinstriping” created by driving through heavy brush in the search for animals. This smaller, high clearance 4X4 is ideally suited for the narrow canyon ‘roads’.

Steve has a lot of connections and had heard about a new bighorn lamb in one of the canyons. Shure enough, we ran into the ewe and the lamb who were by themselves. The Ewe was quite nervous and began moving up and away from us. We both got some nice photographs of the pair. The lamb was less than a week old but surprisingly nimble on new legs. The lamb moved with mom as if tethered by a leash. That was it for a canyon known for frequent and close views of bighorn sheep.

 Ewe With New Lamb

Steve then began to drive to Black Canyon near Aberdeen to look for some mature rams and within 15 minutes of driving that direction he had a hunch and decided to have a look in another canyon near Laws. We ran into his son and I had a chance to chat with an acorn that had not fallen far from the tree.

 I again parked my truck. We saw another truck parked near the mouth of the canyon and wondered where the occupant(s) were. As we drove we passed a male and female trail runner who were attempting a 30-mile loop run between the two canyons. The woman was some distance ahead of the man. We greeted them as we passed them but we were not able to go much faster in the rough terrain. Steve had heard that there were six mature rams in this canyon and soon he spotted some scat on the road. He got out to take a look and immediately got back in the truck. He had spotted three sheep and we drove forward till we were immediately below the sheep. It was a younger ram, ewe and second year juvenile. As we were taking photos, the runners came by and we pointed the sheep out to them.

Steve Looking For Signs With His Grand Dog

Eventually the sheep moved out of sight over a ridge so we moved on, looking for the other five mature rams. We eventually caught up with the male and then the female runner. We stopped to talk and she said, “Did you see the five sheep with the big horns just up from the others?” She gave Steve a description of the location and showed him photos she had taken with her cell phone. We had missed seeing the sheep. Steve told me as we headed back that way that we would have seen them on the way out. Well, he would have spotted them.

There they were, lying down just above us. They are the first mature bighorn rams I have photographed so close. What an experience! We were there for about an hour and enjoyed every minute.

The Gentlemen's Club

We drove back to my truck, I thanked him for a great time and headed back to Fresno. Thanks again Steve.

The sheep photos were taken with the Sony A7R3 and the 100-400mm GM lens with the 1.4X TC (560mm). The other photos were taken with the Zeiss 135mm 2.8 and Zeiss 25mm 2.0 lenses.