Mountain Goats in Colorado??

Hi all,

I'm headed out to Colorado on 9/29-10/4. This is my first trip to your beautiful state and I am quite excited. I'm planning to check out the Bells and then move south to Telluride and the surrounding area.

I would love to photograph some mountain goats while out there. Are there any specific areas that someone could recommend? I won't have time to do any extended trips into the backcountry, but day hikes under 10 miles would be fine. I know it is hard to say with wildlife, but if there is an area where I stand a good chance of spotting some goats, I would like to give it a try.

Thanks for any info you might be able to offer.

Jason

You're guaranteed to see goats on Mt. Evans, though I'm not sure the road will be open at that time.

The road to Mt. Evans closed after Labor Day weekend.

Actually, as of yesterday, Friday, the road on Mt Evans is open, BUT only to Summit Lake and the best section to find mountain goats is the area above Summit Lake. Not sure of the elevation of Summit Lake vs the top but my guess would be about 1-2000 feet. There is fresh snow up there, but it would still be easy enough to walk up the road the first 1000 feet or so of elevation and you could have a fairly decent chance of seeing some close enough to photograph.
Other areas for mountain goats are the Collegiate Range, around Mt Princeton and Ptarmigan Lake, and Torres and Grays on the east side of the Continental Divide just south of I-70.

I've seen them on Marcellina Mountain in the Raggeds Wilderness, which is just south of Maroon Bells. I think you might have to get lucky to find them around there, though, and the terrain's pretty rugged. I know there are some in the western Weminuche. If you have time in the Telluride neighborhood, you could try the West Needles area off Molas Pass. I expect others might have some suggestions, too. Good luck!

Actually the road is open to summit lake which is only about 4 miles from the summit. To checkout the latest conditions go to cotrip.org, click on the road conditions link and scroll to the bottom of the page.
You can easily drive to summit lake and hike to the summit in about an hour or less.

If you can get to Mt. Evans that is probably your best bet. I was just there a few weeks ago and got some fabulous shots of goats. And they are fairly easy to find which makes it worth the trip.

Thanks everyone for your input! I will keep an eye on the conditions at Mt. Evans and might give that a try.

oh yeah FYI come prepared if you do Mt. Evans in Idaho Springs, be aware that you will be at 12 to 13,000 feet at summit lake and the top of Mt. Evans is over 14,000 feet so it is very high and it will probably be very cold too

Thanks everyone for your input! I will keep an eye on the conditions at Mt. Evans and might give that a try.

Thanks everyone for your input! I will keep an eye on the conditions at Mt. Evans and might give that a try.

I have seen mountain goats 3 out of the last 4 times I was up on Webster Pass in the last couple months. Right around Radical Hill and also the intersection of Middle Fork Swan Creek and the Webster Pass Trail. This is near Breckenridge if you are not familiar with the area. This is a 4 wheel trail and was open 2 weeks ago, and should still be open. It tops out at about 12,900 feet.

Thanks Scott. Unfortunately I will be in a 2WD rental so Webster might be off limits.