South of Salida is the northern portion of Sangre de Cristo Mountains that covers all of the Sangre de Cristo Wilderness area. Colorado Parks and Wildlife estimated the Rocky Mountain bighorn herd to be close to 40 bighorns.

These bighorns were transplanted from S51 to supplement a small band of bighorns living on the slopes and basins of the northern Sangre de Cristo Mountains. These are steep and jagged 13,000' mountains that can be physically challenging.