Cowboy Corner: Cliffs, Cattle & One Very Tired Calf
Howdy — Connor McCauley here. Colorado ski bum turned accidental Texas rancher (by way of marrying up). My wife Helen’s a 5th generation rancher — I just happened to convince her I was worth keeping around.
This little newsletter is where I tell stories from our ranch life, from my perspective — and this week’s story? Well... it’s got cliffs, cattle, a military Hummer, and one poor calf who got himself into a real pickle.
Watch The Newsletter Click Below
The Night Before...
This one really starts the night before the big cattle drive.
I was sitting out on the porch, watching the canyon do its thing — quiet, calm, beautiful — when Sam spotted a few aoudad sheep (wild sheep that basically treat cliffs like sidewalks).
At first, I wasn’t sure if I wanted to drag the drone out... but Helen told me to quit overthinking it. So I fired it up.
And man — I’m glad I did.
Ended up catching four aoudad climbing the canyon walls like mountain goats. Even got the shot I’ve been chasing since I bought the drone — aoudad scaling straight up and down the cliffs.
You’ll see that footage at the start of this week’s YouTube video (link up top). Give it a look — and hey, might as well hit Subscribe while you’re there. It helps us out more than you know.
The Cattle Drive: Canyon Edition
Wednesday morning was game time.
We weren’t working cattle in the pens this time — this was a full-on cattle drive out of the bottom of Palo Duro Canyon. And moving cattle 1,000 feet straight up a cliffside? Yeah, that’s a little different than driving them across a flat pasture.
Here’s how it went down:
We started at the very bottom of the canyon — firing up the siren on the military Hummer to call in the cows from all over the pastures scattered through the canyon floor. Slowly but surely, they came pouring in — mama cows, calves, the whole crew.
Once they were all gathered up, it was go-time.
Military Hummer up front, feeding and leading the way.
Aaron and Roger horseback in the back — pushing, prodding, and chasing down any calves trying to make a break for the brush.
Rough Country Cowboy Work
Now, driving cattle up a road is one thing. But these aren’t city cows. This is brushy, rocky, rough country.
Aaron and Roger were flat getting after it — running their horses through the thick brush, cuts and bruises delivered courtesy of every low-hanging tree branch and mesquite limb.
Their job was to find every last calf and push it back to the main group at the bottom of Bull Trail— the steep, winding, 1,000-foot climb out of the canyon.
The Wildest Moment of the Day...
And just when we thought we were in the clear...
Roger spotted a little calf wedged way down in a rocky crevice on the canyon wall.
Aaron didn’t hesitate.
He jumped off his horse, scrambled down, pulled that calf free before it got itself stuck any worse, and hauled it back up.
That calf was worn out. No chance it was climbing Bull Trail on its own.
So Aaron — being a cowboy in every sense of the word — slung that calf over his saddle, climbed back on his horse, and rode that sucker all the way to the top of the canyon.
That’s ranching. That’s cowboy work.
The Top of Bull Trail
After a long, slow climb (and a whole lot of pushing), we got every cow and every calf up Bull Trail to the top of the canyon — where fresh green pasture was waiting on them.
A good day. A hard day. And one heck of a story.
Final Note...
I'll be in Ireland for the next two weeks — so no newsletter until I’m back. But there will be some new YouTube Shorts going up while I’m gone, so check those out if you’re needing a little ranch fix.
Appreciate y’all being here. Thanks for following along.
See ya in a few weeks — God bless.
— Connor
Meet the Author:
For those new to my newsletter, I’m Connor McCauley, and I’m married to a fifth-generation rancher. Much of what I write comes from my own perspective, which is shaped by a unique blend of backgrounds. Raised in the home of a stockbroker in Southeast Pennsylvania, my outlook often contrasts sharply with my current life on a Texas ranch. In 2015, I moved to Colorado to pursue a career in the ski resorts, where I met my amazing wife, Helen. By 2021, we made the full-time move to her family’s ranch, where I’ve taken on a range of roles—from ranch hand to marketer to retail manager.
Leave a comment
All comments are moderated before being published.
This site is protected by hCaptcha and the hCaptcha Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.