Mount Evans: July 2016

My recent trip to Colorado was, as always, all too brief. On our last day I squeezed in one final photo expedition -- a drive up Mount Evans with Taryn and a couple of her friends. My hope was to get some nice shots of mountain goats, bighorn sheep, marmots, and pikas.

Scenery first!  Echo Lake was looking lovely, as usual.

Itch, itch ...

... itch, itch, itch ...

... itch, itch ...

... and DONE.  This young bighorn ewe scratched herself against that rock for quite a while trying to rub off her remaining winter coat before deciding she looked pretty fine.

This pathetic-looking gal couldn't be bothered.  I guess when your coat is in this kind of shape, no amount of rubbing is going to do the job.

Sadly, this small group of sheep made up the entirety of my wildlife photographing.  Despite going all the way up to the summit and keeping a sharp eye out, we saw no other sheep, no marmots, and no pikas.  There were a handful of mountain goats, but I couldn't get a decent shot of any of them.  That's the way it goes with nature sometimes.  That made it especially valuable that I'd gotten to shoot some on Grays and Torreys a few days earlier.

One last scenic shot at Summit Lake -- whose name bugs me, since it's a five-mile drive away from the actual summit -- and we were off.  The sun was shining, the air was fresh and crisp, and Taryn and her friends had fun scrambling on the rocks at the summit despite the gusty winds.  For all those things, I'm thankful.  Perhaps next summer I'll make a solo trip back to Mount Evans, shooting the bristlecone pines at dawn and staying as long as it takes to see all the critters I want.  I always like having an excuse to return to a beautiful place. :)