King of the Hill

If you’re thinking of a trip to Colorado, there are two places you should consider going, Pikes Peak and Mount Evans (my personal favorite of the two).  Both offer classic Colorado Rockies type views and scenery, and both are 14,000+ foot peaks that you can drive to the top of.  REALLY cool stuff.

Now, I mentioned that Mount Evans is my favorite and the reason is that its typically less crowded, and I personally find it to be more scenic.  There seem to be more pull offs on the way up, and the drive up isn’t as “white-knuckled”.  Another reason I like Mount Evans is I consistently get good images of wildlife up there! 🙂  Now, I’ve said many times before I’m not a wildlife photographer, and the reason is I just don’t have the right lenses to do it.  But at Mount Evans (and I’ve heard the same of Pikes Peak at times), there are sheep and goats that don’t mind humans at all, and in many cases will walk right past you on their way to where ever it is that they’re going!

On the particular day that Holly and I went to the top of Mount Evans there was a small herd of mountain goats that came wandering through.  In the bunch there were a good number of juveniles, and when the adults decided they wanted to hang out and eat grass or plop down and rest, well the young ones would start playing.  The game of choice?  King of the hill!  This was HUGELY entertaining as the little guys were ruthless and seemingly fearless.  One would hop to the top of a nearby rock and the others would jump up as well, each pushing and nudging the others so that they could get the best position, often times knocking each other off in the process.  This went on for at least 20 minutes, and if you follow along with us on Facebook, you likely saw a video of it all.  Hilarious!

Beyond the goats, I’ve also included some pictures below that I captured while we were on Pikes Peak and Mount Evans.  As you can see, both are extremely picturesque and worth the drive up!

–Dan Thompson