Bighorn sheep in the Wind Rivers
— — the curve of a horn against November snow.
Not only on a wall.
“The Whiskey Mountain herd winters on the slopes above Dubois, on the east edge of the Wind River Range. Rams gather low, where the wind scours the grass clear, and ewes hold the higher benches. The animals are visible from the Whiskey Basin road most mornings between November and April. Nobody crowds them. People pull off, set down a thermos, and wait for the herd to move. from the studio
Bighorn sheep in the Wind Rivers, on ceramic.
Each tile is finished by hand in our Knoxville studio. Artwork is slowly infused into the ceramic surface under high heat and pressure, and rests beneath a thin glossy finish. The colour lives in the surface, not on top of it.
Pick any four 4-inch tiles — National Parks you've been to, a Smokies set, the four seasons of one place. $ for a set of , cork-backed, ready to live on the table.
The place, in three passes.
The Wind River Range runs about 100 miles along the Continental Divide in west-central Wyoming, holding Gannett Peak at 13,810 feet and seven of the state's tallest summits. The Whiskey Basin Wildlife Habitat Area, southeast of Dubois in Fremont County, was set aside in the 1940s and now anchors the winter range of the Whiskey Mountain bighorn herd, one of the largest wintering populations in North America. The Wyoming Game and Fish Department co-manages the basin with the Bureau of Land Management and the Shoshone National Forest.
Bighorns drop to the winter range in late October and stay through April, when ewes climb back to lambing cliffs. The rut peaks in November and December, the season when rams clash and the sound of horns carries a quarter mile across the basin. The National Bighorn Sheep Interpretive Center in Dubois opens year-round and runs guided herd tours from November through March. Lambs are usually first visible from late May, picking along the south-facing scree above Torrey Creek.
The basin sits at the head of a long valley, and the wind off the Absarokas keeps the snow thin on the south slopes, which is why the herd can winter here at all. Coyotes work the edges. Golden eagles pass overhead through the cold months. The road from Dubois to Trail Lake climbs about six miles of gravel and ends at a trailhead used mostly by climbers headed for Whiskey Mountain in summer. In winter the parking lot stays empty and the herd moves on its own clock.