Mount Evans 2011, Part II

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Jul 092011
 

The primary reason I make the drive up the Mount Evans Scenic Byway every year is the goats. A herd of 100+ mountain goats lives on and around the slopes of Mount Evans and early July seems to be the best time to see them up close. There are often mountain goats milling about the top near the parking lot, and other times they’re grazing near the road a little farther down the mountain. They can be kind of hard to spot because they blend in quite well with the light-colored boulders.

When my mom and I arrived at the parking lot, there was only one yearling mountain goat nearby, which I accidentally scared off. Oops. So we photographed a marmot instead.

We hadn’t been on top of the mountain for very long when darkish clouds started to roll in and we were ordered off the mountain due to the danger of lightning. 

We headed back down the mountain, but very soon saw some cars parked along the road. Multiple cars parked along the road is a good sign that there is something to see there, so we stopped and, sure enough, we saw a small group of goats – two adult females, a yearling, and a baby.

I just LOVE the goats. I’m going to try to make it up to Mount Evans once more before the month is over.

Mount Evans July 2010 II

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Jul 132010
 

I love this view of the incredible environment in which these Mount Evans mountain goats live.

Mama goat and her kid, Mount Evans, Colorado

Mama goat and her kid, Mount Evans, Colorado

The jagged ridge behind mama and her kid is Sawtooth Ridge, with the tallest pointy part of the ridge being THE Sawtooth. Sawtooth Ridge connects Mount Evans to nearby Mount Bierstadt, another 14er, and is apparently quite a frightening route to traverse. I think I’ll leave that one for the mountain goats and their ilk. The two pointy mountains in the background on the far right are Grays and Torreys Peaks, probably the two most often summited 14ers in Colorado if you don’t count the two 14ers with roads to the top (Evans and Pikes Peak).

Mount Evans July 2010 I

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Jul 122010
 

Sometimes you just gotta stop and smell the cinquefoil.

Baby mountain goat, Mount Evans, Colorado

Baby mountain goat, Mount Evans, Colorado

I took another jaunt up to Mount Evans yesterday on a gorgeous midsummer day. My goal was to see baby mountain goats and I was not disappointed.

I took exactly 1,705 photographs yesterday and I haven’t even made a complete pass through them all yet, let alone the figuring-out-which-ones-are-keepers part. Oy. Photography is a lot of work!

Mount Evans 2010

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Jun 192010
 

I finally had an opportunity to take a road trip up to Mount Evans yesterday. It was a gorgeous, nearly cloudless day and even on top of the mountain, it wasn’t too terribly cold. The weather was MUCH nicer than my August visit last year. There was still a bit of snow on the trail that leads to the summit, but it was quite passable (and the hordes of people at the top proved that point). The mountain goats weren’t as plentiful as they were on my early-July trip  last year. I think the girls are off having their babies somewhere.

On the way back down the mountain, I stopped at a spot right at treeline and got some nice photographs of the early alpine bloomers (such as the alpine phlox and sky pilot below) and the bristlecone pines, which, incidentally, are among the oldest living organism on the planet – some of them are nearly 5,000 years old!

It was an altogether wonderful trip up the mountain. I’m going to try to go back in a couple of weeks to see if the baby goats are out and about.

You can view additional photographs from yesterday’s Mount Evans trip HERE.

Oreamnos Americanus

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Jun 132010
 

It will soon be time to head up to Mount Evans in eager anticipation of photographing the resident Rocky Mountain Goats (Oreamnos americanus). 

As “at home” these beautiful animals seem to be here in our Colorado Rockies, mountain goats are actually not native to Colorado. A few of the goats were introduced from other states starting in the 40′s and Colorado’s mountain goat population has since grown to approximately 1,500, with about 140 of those making the Mount Evans area their home. 

I hope I get as lucky this year as I did last year when I make the trek to photograph the goats. 

Mountain Goatlets

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Jan 032010
 
Baby mountain goats on Mount Evans

Baby mountain goats on Mount Evans

The picture above is probably my favorite among the approximately 30,000 pictures I took in 2009. Here’s the story:

In early July of last year, my mom and I drove up Mount Evans here in Colorado. At 14,264’ in elevation, Mt. Evans is the 14th highest peak in Colorado, but its primary distinction is the paved road that goes nearly to the top, making it the highest paved road in North America. The parking lot itself is a fourteener (14,130)!

Hoping at the very least to catch a glimpse of the resident mountain goat population, we were amazed and delighted to find a herd of 18 females and yearlings and 5 weeks-old babies milling about in the area around the parking lot. These animals seem to have very little fear of humans. There were times when I’d be standing with my eye glued to my camera’s viewfinder and I’d feel something brush by me and when I looked, I’d see that a mama goat has just passed by. I took over 350 photos of the goats that day and probably would have kept going indefinitely (or until all of my batteries had died or the sun went down) had I not started to feel the effects of the altitude.

You can view the rest of my July 2009 Mount Evans gallery HERE.