The Sheep Walk

On Saturday, October 2nd we got up at 5am to go see the Sheep Walk. Every year a group of ranchers walks their sheep from their ranch in Florence to Eager Arizona for the summer. October is when they walk them back from Eager to Florence for the winter. Joe taught school with a lady that wrote a book about this Sheep Walk. She let us know when it was happening so we could watch them walk the sheep down Signal Butte Road from Usery Pass to the US 60.

When we got up it was pitch black. We drove up and down Signal Butte but couldn't find them. So we went back home and got the email instructions and headed back out. We finally found Cindy, the writer of the book at Signal Butte and Brown Road. So we hopped out of the truck and waited. We took tons of pictures and some video of this amazing occurrence. Here are a few.

Here are my boys waiting for the sheep to come down the road to Brown. The sheep were escorted by 3 Maricopa County Sheriff's, 2 in the front and 1 in the back. It was quite a site to see, smell and hear. The sheep make quite a noise as they walk. We were encouraged to walk with them, but the boys didn't want to until the end.
Here they come. The shepherds had red flags and lasso's to keep the sheep moving along. There were also 3 dogs herding them along.The boys got so excited when they finally saw them coming.

This white dog is named Blue for the blue collar he always wears.

The blond lady standing behind Tyler is Cindy. She has gone on the sheep trail many times. She is currently writing a book about the burros that the ranchers used while in the mountains. We got to see the beginnings of the book along with the pictures. They are amazing.

Once the sheep went past Brown Road, we cut around them on Meridian and got a spot at Apache Trail (Main Street in Mesa). Here are the boys waiting for the sheep to come by again.

Joe and Jacob waiting for the sheep.

Sherri, Jared & Aaron waiting on Apache Trail.

A Mesa Police car pulled up to the light at Apache just as the sheep were coming through. It was fun to watch the sheep go around the Police car. The officer had his cellphone out and was taking pictures and filming it.

Me in front of the sheep. My boys were too nervous to join me in the street.

At Southern Road there was a lot more traffic, including bicyclist. People were just pulling over in amazement.

This car just stopped at Southern and didn't know where to go, so the sheep went around it.

The boys and Joe decided to walk from Southern to the freeway. I drove around and met them. The sheep turn into the desert from here and head down towards Florence. They camp somewhere around Guadalupe Road and will finish the trek on Sunday.

Here come the boys behind the sheep.

This is one of the other dogs. This picture says it all. It was getting hot and was a long walk from Usery Pass to the US 60 and they still had another mile or 2 to go.

In all it took just about an hour for the sheep to walk down Signal Butte Road. The boys thought it was too cool. We are hoping to do this again next year, and hopefully it will be cooler. The best part is we went for a fun Village Inn breakfast after our Sheep Walk.