Exploring Hell's Canyon by jet boat today under cloudless blue skies, we encountered several large groups of Rocky Mountain bighorn sheep. At about this time each year the large rams gather groups of females into harems for mating, sometimes competing for access to the ewes in violent contests, using their 40-pound curling horns to batter each other. This is one of the best times to observe these animals down close to the river and we enjoyed excellent views of two large groups and a number of smaller gatherings.
This adult female obligingly posed in front of some of the beautiful fluted basalt columns which line the Snake River just above its confluence with the Clearwater.
