Animals, Part 2: The Barnyard Cousins

These stone sheep were licking the road. You see a lot of animals doing that -- since the roads are salted through the winter because of snow and ice, the critters spend the summer months licking it off. It must get down in the pavement or something....whatever, they're still licking the roads in August. This group was in the middle of the road when we got to Muncho Lake, and it was really thoughtful of them to be at a spot where there was a nice big pull-out. Several RV's were pulled in there. If you look close, you can see the road going along the base of the mountain just above the water level in the background. It's a very deep lake, and it made my mom pretty nervous driving along there because there aren't any guardrails. It didn't help that last year she read about how many giant tractors crashed off the side of the mountain and fell in the lake while the Alaska Hwy was being built..... :)
I'm convinced that this handsome dude is a professional model. He posed on the road, then climbed up on this rock and posed again -- then turned and faced the other direction and posed once again! I guess he wanted to be sure we were getting all his best angles. He was still doin' his thing when we drove on and gave someone else a turn for a photo op.

And now we go from the sheep to a mountain goat. You'll just have to trust me on this one -- I had zoomed my camera in as far as it would go. He's that little white spot in the upper left center area by the 2 trees at the top. Roger was supposed to be driving, which usually means keeping your eyes on the road, but he can spot more animals than anyone I know! This guy (it was a Billy goat - Roger got out the binoculars after he pulled over) was barely visible to the naked eye, but that tiny white spot on the side of the mountain just looked out of place! He finally wandered back behind the trees there beside him, and we couldn't find any others on the mountain anywhere.