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Wow, they're heading my way! Maybe if I hold real still, they'll pass by?

This turned into my best goat encounter ever!

The story behind the pictures: Heading uphill, I passed a few earlier hikers coming down, one of whom mentioned seeing goats on the summit. I didn't, but OK, there was a bit of their white fur on top. Heading downhill, 20 minutes off the summit, I noticed a goat way down the hill, and took a throwaway zoom photo (previous). I figured they'd run off when I got closer... not.

The first photo was at 4:06 pm. To my surprise, the goats, a herd of 5 total including a lamb, wandered over toward me, and I took pictures of them for just 3 minutes (felt longer) at 4:16 pm. They were a mix of skittish and bold. I talked to them, moved slowly, gave them some space, and they didn't seem to mind me much. When they headed downhill I figured that was it, but was still quite jazzed.

I walked down to where the trail turned into 100% rocks at about 12000', paused in the shade for a break at the top of the steep nasty talus slope, and -- amazing, they showed up above and all around me! I took more pictures for 7 minutes (felt longer) starting at 4:28. Eventually they continued down, out of sight. And I saw them once more, way below me near timberline.

K2_GoatAndBushes.jpg (488 Kb) (under photos/20/0707-11_VanColorado/)

By Alan Silverstein, ajs@frii.com (page updated Sun Mar 9 14:33:54 MDT 2025)