Mountain Goats!

 

 

Is it legal to be especially grateful for a single kind of animal? I love the mountain goats of the Wasatch mountains! Perhaps I love them because we share an appreciation of the beauty of the high elevations. I love their agility and confidence, their "family unity," their beauty and dignity. I love that they have often let me walk among their herd very peacefully.

My first experience with the goats of Timpanogos came in the early 1980s. I learned later that they had only recently been reintroduced into the area, but I was unaware of them at the time. As a single college-age kid, I was spending the night in the Emerald Basin, and had made my campsite. I was sitting at the top of the Primrose Cirque overlooking the beautiful scenery. Out of the corner of my eye I saw a white shape climbing up the steep ridge off to the north. From my vantage point in the evening light, it looked like a man in a white robe, and I wondered if I was having some kind of religious experience! I had to know what it was, and so made my way carefully across the steep hillside to where I had last seen the motion. I came right up on the fluffy white goat and was in awe at its beauty up close.

I've loved them ever since, and almost always see one or more when I climb Timp. I've seen them in a dozen other locations along the Wasatch, as well as other mountains in the western US. They are magnificent animals! I #GiveThanks for these beauties of God's creation.