That Just Gets My Goat!

“Do you have any goat pictures?”, the nice lady at the art festival asked. “I have goats and I’m looking for goat pictures.” “Yes!”, I replied. “I have hundreds of goat pictures. They’re all on my hard drive at home. Not here.”

Such is life. This is not the first time this has happened. “Do you have any photos of Snoqualmie Falls?”, I was asked at an art fair earlier this year. “Yes, I do! They’re at home on my hard drive.” I now take several prints of Snoqualmie Falls with me to art fairs, but naturally I’ve never seen that person again. But hey, it gave me an excuse to go back into my archives and finish some images that I should have worked on years ago. And this time it’s going to be the goats.

I’ve run into goats several times on hikes and backpacks, once in Montana at Glacier National Park, and again over the course of an entire week backpacking in The Enchantments in the Alpine Lakes Wilderness. In fact, we had to be careful not to trip over the goats on these trips. As I explained in an earlier post, Not exactly feeding the animals, but…, goats crave the salt that humans produce, so they like to hang pretty close. And they know exactly what you’re going to do the moment you first emerge from your tent in the morning. The ones that shared our campsite were friendly and non-aggressive, but your mileage could vary, so be careful. These guys have very sharp horns and have been known to kill people. Rangers recommend chasing the goats away, with rocks if necessary, to keep them from becoming too comfortable around humans. Personally, I doubt there’s much chance that will work, and I don’t want to be the one to make a goat mad. But that’s just me.

A goat takes a mid-morning break atop a snow field while Prusik Peak towers over a hillside of turning Larch trees, in the Alpine Lakes Wilderness, Washington.

Now here’s a fun fact: both male and female mountain goats have beards! For example, in this next image we have a, um, well, it’s one or the other, I suppose. I’m not really sure. Probably a female, since moms and kids followed us, mostly.

A curious goat watches the photographer carefully, in the Alpine Lakes Wilderness, Washington.

Here’s a nice male goat (I know that for a fact) out for a stroll on a snow field in Montana, trying to decide if we were worth pursuing for treats. He ultimately decided to move on up the trail without bothering us.

A goat takes a stroll across a snowfield near Logan Pass, in Glacier National Park, Montana.

This cute little guy was hanging out with mom at our campsite in The Enchantments. He climbed up on a rock to get a better view of our activities.

A kid goat sneaks a peek at our campsite from atop a boulder, in the Alpine Lakes Wilderness, Washington.

And finally, a different campsite, a different crowd of goats. I joked that there must be a reservation system the goats use to make sure every campsite has a designated goat family to keep us company. It really did seem like it!

A goat checks out the area from atop a granite boulder, in the Alpine Lakes Wilderness, Washington.

So that’s it. I’ve managed to get some goat images post-processed and on my site. With any luck I’ll have some printed and matted for my next show – where someone will undoubtedly ask me if I have any bighorn sheep photos. It never ends!