On the Rocks Greeting Cards
On The Rocks
Rio Grande Gorge, New Mexico
Date: September 3, 2026
Photo by: Karen Butts
This young Rocky Mountain Big Horn Sheep stands perfectly balanced several hundred feet above the Rio Grande George. Females (ewes) give birth to lambs in May or, June so this lamb is most likely about five months old. Young Big Horn are referred to as lambs until they reach one year in age. As for their population size, biologists estimate that 1.5 million bighorns lived in North America in precolonial times, today they number 80,000 – 90,000. Their population dwindled due to overhunting and disease transmission from domestic and wild sheep. Good news! Their numbers have increased.
Sheep were absent from the gorge until 2006 when Taos Pueblo initiated a repopulation effort and brought 23 sheep from tribal lands near Wheeler Peak. In 2007, the NM Department of Wildlife released an additional 25 sheep into the gorge from the Pecos Wilderness. Current estimates are that there are about 400 sheep in the Taos Gorge area.
The gorge is part of the Rio del Norte National Monument. the monument extends north to the Colorado border and protects 242,000 acres, including a 54-mile section of the Rio Grande River – from Pilar, New Mexico north and through a large portion of the Taos Plateau. The plateau was volcanically formed millions of years ago and is geological rift, a tear in the earth – with the Rio Grande River flowing through it. You can cross the river over the Gorge Bridge west of Taos, stop at the rest area to view the river 800 feet below and see if you can spot some Big Horn Sheep. What may look like a precarious environment, is home sweet home for the sheep.
