On Saturday morning, hundreds of people gathered in Eagle where the road 55 meets the foothills to witness a highly anticipated event: the trailing of the sheep!
With drones flying above, parents with kids on their shoulders and eager onlookers lined up on the side of Highway 55 and onto the neighborhood road, right where the fast encroaching suburbs meet the rolling hills.
Police cruisers flashing, officers cleared a path in the crowd to make way for the roughly 2400 sheep making the trek from the alfalfa fields of Western Canyon County to the greener and higher pastures of BLM and forest service lands. The flock belongs to Wilder rancher Frank Shirts.
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Gabe Garcia came with his two small kiddos to watch as the thousands of ewes and lambs made their way across the eastside of the highway into the grazing highlands of the foothills.
“It keeps rural Idaho still alive, essentially,” said Garcia, “And I think everyone gets to be a part of it, that's what's really cool about it.”
Black shepherd dogs guiding them swiftly across the asphalt, the sheep crossed the road in a hurry.
“There’s the herder and then the lead ewe with the cow bell in the front. And then all the sheep fall in behind,” said Steve Stuebner, who helped coordinate the crossing.
Sheep trailing has been going on since the 1880s, but with the onset of urbanization, ranchers have had to adapt.
“There's definitely some droppings on the highway, but that fertilizes the soil once we're out here on the range,” Stuebner added.
Like a soft thick blanket flowing down the rolling hill, the flock disappeared into the sagebrush landscape within minutes of crossing the highway, leaving the crowd giddy from the whirlwind.
The sheep will end up north of Idaho City for the summer before getting shipped to market in August.
