Sangres.com logo

Sheep and Little Sheep Mountains

Huerfano County, Colorado

Sheep Mountains
Sheep Mountain (left) and Little Sheep Mountain (right), from the north
Sheep and Little Sheep Mountains
Sheep Mountain from the southeast

Sheep (10,635') and Little Sheep (9,679') Mountains are in a line heading northward from Mt. Mestas. Both of these mountains are composed of the same granitic stock materials as Mt. Mestas, Silver Mountain, Rough Mountain, and the Spanish Peaks. Climbing on them is climbing mostly on boulders and loose talus slopes. Even under the trees nearly everything is loose.

ARCO was drilling in this area a number of years ago, looking for natural gas. What they found was a large bubble of carbon dioxide. These days there is a pipeline running from this area down to the Permian Basin in west Texas carrying that CO2 to be pumped down injection wells to force more oil out.

Sheep Mountain
Sheep Mountain from the northeast

The "mass" of both of these mountains is owned by the BLM, however, there is at least one subdivision of 35-40 acre properties at the foot of them bordering on the BLM. Forget utilities ("the grid") in most of the area. In my travels around these mountains the only road that seems to get regular maintenance is Pass Creek Road on the west side. I've been over several of the county roads on the east side and most of them are unmarked, never mind regularly maintained.

Little Sheep Mountain
Little Sheep Mountain from the northeast
Sheep Mountain, Sangre de Cristo Mountains, Huerfano County, Colorado
Sheep Mountain from the southeast
Little Sheep Mountain
Little Sheep Mountain, from the west
Sheep Mountains area mapPass Creek Road
Sheep Mountains area map
sangres.com logo
Photos courtesy of Sangres.com, CCA ShareAlike 3.0 License.
Map courtesy of National Geographic Topo!
Text Copyright © by Sangres.com. All rights reserved.