Cedar Canyon State Wildlife Management Area

Warm weather was forecast for today, so Noelle, Sierra and I decided to get outside and take advantage of it. We wanted to go to a location where it might be a bit easier to do some social distancing, and so I decided that the Cedar Canyon State Wildlife Management Area might fit the bill. We made the short drive out there

and immediately hit the trail, actually a two-track, closed road.

Sierra excited skipped along the road. We followed the "main road" for a bit before turning right onto a side road that led into a small canyon. Almost immediately upon turning on the road, Noelle noticed a herd of bighorn sheep on a steep hillside.

We watched them for about 10 minutes

before they moved out of site. Then we headed further up the road to a point where it dead-ended. We continued in the same general direction after the road ended, to a point where there was a low ridge. We stopped there to rest for a bit.

Eventually we started back in the direction from which we had come.

We then decided that we would attempt to climb up the ridge close to where we had seen the bighorns earlier.

Parts of the climb were steep and treacherous. We noticed a few clumps of blooming flowers, phlox I believe.

We persevered and eventually made the ridge top.

From the top of the ridge we could see the bighorn herd again down below.

We observed them for a bit before beginning the descent, much less treacherous on the east side of the ridge.

Once we were down in the valley floor,

we followed a two track road for a bit and then branched off onto what appeared to be a fire break.

We returned to the two track and followed it to the east boundary of the wildlife management area.

Then we followed the main road back to the car for the short drive home in the wind.