Last week Managing Editor Mark Melotik was hunting elk. What he found was mountain goats aplenty.

Early in the elk season the common wisdom is that the biggest bulls are hanging around timberline. Managing Editor Mark Melotik found himself in just such a high country haunt last week in Colorado, in his quest for a regal trophy bull.

There were some obstacles. True to early season form, the daytime temps hit the mid-70s, which in the rarified air above 11,000 feet made it seem more like the mid-80s. And the recreational traffic (hikers, atvs, dirt bikes) courtesy of the long Labor Day weekend made finding far-offroad haunts a necessity. Even so, the high temps and increased traffic seemed to keep the elk activity on the down-low. No bugles were heard during the first few days of the hunt.

Soon after the weekend crowd departed, Melotik encountered several other mountain dwellers: a herd of mountain goats, which hung around his camp for a day and a half, pretty much all day and night. Check out the video of these handsome, agile animals as they go about their business in their high country homeland.