Sunrise Point Visitor
I took a drive up to Hurricane Ridge yesterday to scout out a possible location to view the Perseid meteor shower this Thursday nights. With camera and tripod in tow I took a short hike to Sunrise Point, which sounded like a great place to view the meteors. When I got there it was socked in with clouds. I couldn’t see anything except the lump of dirt/rocks I was standing on and a few trees around me. After hanging out for about an hour the clouds started moving in and out with longer period of clearing. I could now see the Klahhane Ridge trail below me.
I also noticed a few people on the trail pointing and taking pictures. I panned my camera towards the direction they were pointing to see a mountain goat about 100 yards below me. I kept an eye on the goat because it looked like it was heading in my direction. At one point I couldn’t see it anymore because it was below a cliff and vegetation. However, I continued to watch in the direction it was headed just in case it continued up the hill. Yep, there it was, now 50 yards away and still heading in my direction.
It looked like a goat on a mission and didn’t seem to care that I was there.
When she (the goat) got to about 15 feet from me I could hear people coming up the trail behind me. It was a family with two small children.
The goat and family all reached the top of the Point at the same time. So…, there we all were, standing very still at the top of Sunrise Point. I told the family that if she started to walk towards us we would need to back away. The mother translated what I said to the rest of her family in what sounded like French. At that point the goat started to take a few steps towards us. We managed to all take a few steps back and then proceeded to do a little dance with the goat. As we slowly walked to the right the goat went to the left. Keep in mind that Sunrise Point is not very big. Maybe 15’ x 20’ and seemed even smaller with an approx. 200lb goat and five people.
As we all pivoted around in a circle to allow the goat to continue in the direction it wanted to go, we ended up with the goat between us and the only way off the Point.
We watching that goat eat something in the dirt at the base of a tree for about 10 minutes before it continued on its way to scare the bejeezus out of other people on the trail.
There was lots of wildlife on the Ridge yesterday. It was a very good day!
Gina's Photo Blog 
Good to know and hope she wasn’t too aggressive with you. I’m heading up there tonight to watch the meteor shower. Hoping for no encounters.
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Great images! My son and I hiked the Klahhane Ridge trail a couple weekends ago (down to Lake Angeles) and had an interesting encounter with a nanny and her kid.
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Gorgeous!
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Incredible photos! Such a beautiful area and you really caught the mood of the place. And how exciting to see a Mountain goat. I’m glad to hear that you were so respectful and cautious. People underestimate how dangerous they can be. And as you know, a hiker was killed by one a couple of years ago.
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Very nice and an enjoyable story as well. I felt like I was there.
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Too much fun! And great pics too!
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