Waterton Canyon: Riding with Bighorn Sheep

Описание: Waterton Canyon is where the Platte River goes up into the foothills towards it's beginning at Pikes Peak. Waterton is South of Denver, and you can bike all 24 miles from downtown Denver to the Waterton Canyon trailhead on the Platte trail and then through Chatfield State Park. Or you can park at the Waterton Canyon trailhead.

See here for a full map:   / strava  

Waterton Canyon is ~6.5 mile long, 2-lane gravel road that serves as both a recreational path, and an access road for workers at the Strontia Springs Dam, so you'll see a white pickup truck driving slowly up or down every few hours, but there are no public cars. The top of Waterton Canyon is also the trailhead for the Colorado Trail, a singletrack trail that traverses the state, so you'll see some long-distance backpackers trekking along. And of course, you'll see lots of camera-holding sheep-peepers. Dogs are NOT ALLOWED, due to the bighorn sheep. Getting close to the bighorn sheep is often unavoidable due to the narrow canyon, and having a dog next to you barking at them would be absolutely terrifying.

I usually ride past the sheep more readily, but the sign visible at 1:00 that didn't show up on camera says "SHEEP MATING SEASON, KEEP BACK 100-ft" so that kind of spooked me out this time and I avoided biking past them a bit more than normal.

Sheep:
10:00
18:45 sheep did not like that fisherman
21:45 whole herd of 'em
29:50 and 32:00 shows a few big male sheep hanging at the top of the Waterton
39:20 sheep on trail, I waited for a while but then one jumped down right behind me at 40:55 so I got going
47:20 those two sheep butted heads RIGHT as I passed them, unfortunately they're behind my arm so you can't really see them but they gave me a good scare lol

31:30 shows Strontia Springs Dam at the top of the trail. The Colorado Trailhead is just another 1,000 feet or so away.

#denver #bikeride #slowtv