The Dirt on Sheep Mountain

Sheep Mountain from County Road 530. The view is looking west, showing the mountain's east face.

Sheep Mountain is a prominent, north-south trending laccolith in western Huerfano County. Most of the mountain is administered by the United States Bureau of Land Management. Its elevation is 10,620, but that only speaks to its highest point. In fact, the mountain has a long ridgeline with very steep sides on the east and west.  

Looking closely at the above picture, one sees three deforested areas at the top of the mountain's base. These treeless, grassy areas, upon closer inspection, appear to be at the base of three large slides that occurred sometime in the mountain's past.

The grassy area on the left has the shape of a T-shirt, the middle one is shaped like Thailand, and the one on the right looks like a giant molar. When did these slides occur? Are additional such slides possible?

The Sheep Mountain area as shown on a BLM map. The gold-shaded areas are owned by the Bureau of Land Management.

I also approached Sheep Mountain from the east on County Road 520.1, which heads west from CR 520. There are many "NO TRESPASSING" and "NO BLM ACCESS" signs here, despite the fact that the county road is public and so is the mountain itself. If you don't live near the mountain, the locals are not very welcoming. 

County Road 530 is "open range" and often experiences "heavy" traffic. Here the view is towards the northeast and Greenhorn Mountain.

There are too many places in Colorado with "Sheep" in the name. The same is true for Elk, Deer, Devil's, Castle Rock, Cottonwood, Oak, and Ute. If you search for, for example, Ute Pass, you're likely to get search results for every one, except the one that you want (there are several Ute Passes in Colorado). We need to re-name our geographical features so that they have unique, disambiguated names. Perhaps we should re-name Sheep Mountain. ⚒

The Yellowstone Church, located on County Road 530, east of Yellowstone Creek and east of Sheep Mountain.