Skull found on Lightning Bolt Cracks, North Six Shooter

Does anyone know the story behind the cow (sheep?) skull in the back of the crack on the last pitch? I saw it on April 5th and was surprised I hadn't read about it anywhere. Its not super noticeable, I didn't see it at first, and my partner never saw it, which made me wonder if I was delusional until I found this
I noticed that that the picture is recent though, so perhaps the cow got lost up there recently...

127 hours, cow style?

I seem to remember hearing about this more than once now. I think it's been there for a while but I can't say for sure since it was too cold to do the route when I was out there.

The skull was there in May 2009. I thought it was cool and weird to find but hope it stays.

This post proved to be much less gory than the title promised.

But, there's a simple answer to "how it got there."

Cows can climb, of course.

Happens all the time. Cows just explode. Natural causes.

Sorry Tim....

Its been there since the late 90's at least.

If I was camping out there and found a cow skull, I would TOTALLY haul it up a desert classic and stash it so people would wonder.

That's what I was thinking, Hank. Back on the Continental Ranch near the Pecos we went down in and surveyed a cave that hunters had been throwing deer carcasses into for years. It was a perfectly round hole punched through a flat, limestone roof. So once down I arranged all seven of the skulls on top of a flat rock shelf so they would all stare at the next person down in the future.

"Step forward and be judged!"

It's protected from the rain, so hopefully still there as is.

Also always wondered about this, here's another photo I took some years ago... Pretty deep in there!

Lightning Bolt Cow Skull

Mike Lane wrote:Happens all the time. Cows just explode. Natural causes.