Monday, December 20, 2010

HOOFED MAMMALS: Mountain Goat Stories-V

Finding Mountains Goats with their young kids is a delight. Baby animals are just like baby humans, they are cute, playful, and cuddly. About 70 miles south of Jasper you come to the Columbia Icefields. The Icefields is a flat "straightaway"  that varies between 100 to 300 yards wide and runs for several miles. It gets an average of 275 inches of snowfall per year. There are eight major glaciers feeding the Icefields. There are eleven mountains all of about 12,000 feet lining both sides of the Icefields. The Icefield sits atop a "triple" Continental Divide. The Athabasca River and the North Saskatchewan River and the tributaries of the Columbia River all originate in the Columbia Icefield. So, the Columbia River  eventually flows into the Pacific Ocean dividing Washington State from Oregon. The Athabasca River ultimately arrives in the Arctic Ocean and the Saskatchewan ultimately in the Hudson Bay and thus North Atlantic Ocean. This is the Canadian Rockies at its finest. You have a clear view of the Athabasca Glacier from the road that parallels the Icefields. I once saw a big Bull Moose casually strolling down the middle of the Icefields, but I'll leave that to another day. And, if you recall, I told you of the story of the Coyote strolling down the middle of the Icefields just a couple weeks ago. On another occasion, though,  I stopped along side the road and got out to admire the scenery. At the very top of one mountain cliff I saw what looked like a Mountain Goat. I got out my binoculars and confirmed the sighting. So, I decided this would be a great place for lunch. I made myself a sandwich, cottage cheese, chips, poured a drink and waited. After an hour, and a delicious sandwich, I took another look through the binoculars. Not only had the Mountain Goat come halfway down the cliff, I now could clearly see a baby carefully descending the cliff behind its mom. After another hour wait, the Mountain Goat and Kid arrived at the bottom, providing me wonderful photos and memories:






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