Canadian Rockies Wildlife: Mountain Goats Along the Icefield Parkway

Starting out on the trip into the Tonquin Valley a couple of weeks ago, we came across a small herd of mountain goats along the Icefields Parkway.  When we first photographed them, the nannies had all of the kids hemmed in to graze along the edge of the road.  Our group of six photographed them for 15 minutes and then crossed the highway to enjoy the elevated view over the valley and the North Saskatchewan River.  When the goats came through the trees heading towards the steep loose gravel slopes above the river, we got pretty excited.

For the next half an hour, the 8 or 9 goats walked onto the hillside, chased one another, peered over the bluffs towards the river and dug into the hill presumably to get at the cool dirt underneath and to stop the insects from biting.  A very cool encounter and it was a great way to start the first day of the workshop.