Bighorn Sheep Area – Baxter Pass

Baxter Pass, John Muir Wilderness, CA – 1972

I read reviews by other hikers to see what they said about the Baxter Pass Trail. James Caster (on the website www.sierranevadageotourism.org) wrote on February 20, 2014, “I climbed this beautiful but brutal trail 40 years ago and I shall always remember it as one of the most wonderful experiences of my life”. He continued with, “I watched a herd of Bighorn Sheep (9 ewes and 4 lambs) grazing on lichen, as best I could tell, because there was no soil up there, only rocks”.

The last time I hiked up Baxter Pass was forty-two years ago. And it was both a beautiful and brutal trail. It’s about a twelve mile hike from the 6,000 foot trailhead to Baxter Pass at 12, 320 feet.  So basically, like Sawmill Pass and Shepherd Pass, it’s steep. Along the way there used to be oak and Jeffrey pines along Oak Creek until the Independence Fire of 2007 burnt much of the landscape. At a few hundred feet over 11,000 elevation, there is a beautiful meadow near a stream. It was here I set up my base camp.

The next morning I headed for the summit of Baxter Pass. As I was reaching the top I heard the sound of rocks rattling. I looked up in time to see the rear ends of two bighorn sheep. The rams have large circular horns, the ewes shorter stubby horns. And they are horns and not antlers, as these do not shed until an animal dies.

Since I was the California Bighorn Sheep Zoological Ranger I quickly followed what I now saw were two ewes. I tried to keep pace with them. They went right to the edge and then disappeared out of my view. I jogged up to where they disappeared and stopped dead in my tracks. I could hear them as they descended down off a steep, rocky cliff. They made it look effortless. Me? I would have to rope up before ever trying that descent. I was impressed.

When I returned to my camp in the afternoon I found I was no longer alone. There was a group of fifteen high school students and their teachers camped near my tent. It was a strange feeling to suddenly encounter more people than sheep.

One of the teachers asked if I would drop by around dinnertime and talk to the students about the bighorn sheep. I readily agreed. One of the kids asked me when was a good time to see the sheep. Kidding, I told him to look for sheep on the ridge around 7 pm.

Around 7 pm the students called to me, “Ranger, ranger. Look. There they are!”

Sure enough, five bighorns; one a ram, were silhouetted on the skyline as they traversed a ridge above our camp. I casually looked down on my Smokey Bear wristwatch and replied, “Yep, right on time.”

The weather was staying bright and sunny, so I decided to hike over Baxter Pass and take a look at the Rae Lakes within the national park. First I passed by Baxter Lake just on the west side of the pass. Then I headed south and reached the Rae Lakes. Wow! Gorgeous lakes, incredible granite peaks of Fin Dome and the Painted Lady, and a healthy subalpine forest.

Located along the John Muir Trail, a 210 mile trail between Yosemite National Park and the summit of Mt. Whitney, Rae Lakes is a popular spot. I smelled wood smoke and soon came to a park ranger cabin manned by a seasonal backcountry ranger. He invited me for coffee and was impressed that I had been hiking up Baxter, Sawmill, and Shepherd Passes. “I always hike in on Kearsarge Pass,” he told me. “Higher trailhead to start hiking on and lower pass to climb over.”

I then heard the sound of a helicopter coming in to land in the meadow across from his cabin. He continued to sip his coffee and not act interested.

“A helicopter?” I asked.

“That’s how I get my supplies,” he answered. “How do you get yours?”

“I backpack them in,” I said.

As I hiked away from the Rae Lakes and headed up Baxter Pass I decided that I preferred my job as a wilderness ranger over that of the national park service backcountry ranger. And then I thought, I bet he prefers his job over mine.

It didn’t take me long to reach the top of the pass. By this time I was both fully acclimated to the high altitude and I was in great shape from hiking these trails requiring 6,000 or more feet of elevation gain. As I descended down the eastern slope towards my camp, I was rewarded with bighorn sheep grazing on the slope. I guess I was not a threat to them, or maybe I hoped they recognized me as a friend, for they looked up and then continued to graze.

The high school group had left, so I had Baxter Pass again to myself. I settled in, heated up some instant coffee and cooked up my freeze-dried dinner of chili-mac. I looked up on the ridge and there was a line of bighorns . I looked at my watch on my wrist. Seven o’clock. Right on time.