On our hike yesterday we scrambled down a snowy ravine and explored a washout section of the creek we previously dubbed "Bone Creek" after 
(We didn't find the skulls together like that, I posed them for the photo :)
Here is the first skull we found in situ. You can see some ribs behind the skull, and it looked like the complete skeleton was mostly there under the snow.
I am honestly not sure what the story is with these sheep. I don't think bighorn sheep normally come down to the base of the mountain where we found these very close to town.
It is possible that they might be poached / illegal kills; the forest service road runs almost directly above the stream bed here and it would be a convenient spot to pull over and toss the hide and bones down a steep ravine after dressing a carcass for meat.
In any case, we are going to treasure the skulls of these beautiful animals now. I hauled them out down to our car (the skulls are surprisingly heavy - apparently the horns of a bighorn sheep can weigh up to 30 pounds!).
The skulls are in a big tub of water now to undergo cold water maceration process (basically letting water and bacteria digest all the soft tissue bits and clean the skull for us).
Sink your teeth into these beauties :) Pebble and rock action from yesterday's hike.
