Very interesting guys great shots and nice catches hope you had a great time

Thanks to everyone for your comments. I'm glad you enjoyed the pics.

Uncle Zeek, the red bellied fish are cutthroat trout. Often called cutties or cutts. Beautiful fish!

ZachW, during high water, I look for soft water next to shore. Pockets, inside bends in the river, submerged boulders, fallen trees, etc.

I figured out how to add videos, so here are a couple. This one is a bear up a tree across the street from the house. Not much of a video, but I got a kick out of watching the bear and maybe you will too. I've got a great camera but I'm not much of a videographer as I unintentionaly shot the video in slow-mo.



I messed around with the time-lapse feature on the camera and recorded a nice sunset.



I've got a few more that I might add.

Beautiful. Thanks for sharing.

Shelter in place is boring. What to do, what to do? Well, how about.........

BACKSTORY: THE GOAT

Grizzly lake sits below majestic Grizzly peak about 12 miles east of Aspen. At 13,989 feet, Grizzly Peak is 11 feet shy of being a 14'er and much more well known. Although somewhat remote, Grizzly lake is on all the hiking trail maps and the folks at the fly shops won't hesitate to send customers there to catch cutts. In other words, this place is no secret. But it is an awesome hike and offers loads of 10"-12" cutts, with the occasional 14 incher. This is a hike I make at least once a summer and one I highly recommend. This is a hike for fisherman and their non-fishing partners alike. All will enjoy.

The trailhead starts at Grizzly reservoir and covers 3.6 miles to the lake. The first section of the trail, about 4/10ths of a mile, is a moderately steep hike through the trees before breaking out into a wide open gulch. The majority of the hike follows the gulch toward it's upper end and is easy with a gradual upward grade. The last 6/10ths of a mile before reaching the lake is moderately steep with some short steep sections. This section can be a real lung buster for us flat landers but slow and easy gets you to the destination. If you are moderately fit, willing and able, its worth the trek.

It was September 16th when I hiked to Grizzly and had the encounter with The Goat (3rd from the last of the wildlife photos above). Above the final switch-back on the trail is a band of cliffs. As I approached the switch-back I spotted a herd of goats on the ridge above the cliffs. For perspective (and because I like pictures) here is a picture of Grizzly peak that shows the entire area. Grizzly peak dominates the photo and if you zoom in lower-center-left you can seen the trail as it ascends the final leg to the lake. Up to the right of the trail you can see a band of cliffs and, on the ridge above, a few small snow patches. The goats were in the area near the snow patches.



You can't see the lake in the photo as it is behind the band of cliffs and below the two snow patches on the face of Grizzly peak.

While hiking, I often see goats but they are almost always too far away and in difficult or too dangerous terrain to go after with my camera. I've always wanted to gets some good shots of goats and had been looking for a good opportunity. On this day, from on the trail below the cliffs, I could see no route I could safely climb to get to the goats. So, I continued up the trail to the lake. Once there, I started fishing my way around the lake.



About half way around the lake I noticed a steep chute through the band of cliffs between me and the goats. As I had previously summited Grizzly peak and knew the area well, I assessed the chute as being climbable. I continued to fish my way around the lake to the bottom of the chute. Made another quick assessment, packed up my rod and up I went. It was steep. Very steep. In this shot (taken on a different day and from across the lake) you can see the chute, slightly to the left of the lake, cutting through the band of cliffs. The goats were on the ridge just beyond the top of the chute.



At the top of the chute, I was rewarded by an encounter with a herd of around 18 goats that seemed completely indifferent to my presence. I took tons of photos and here are a few.









I used a hiking app to record my trip and saved the track as a file. Google Earth can open these files and display the track on the terrain map. Here is a screen capture of the Google Earth display of my track.



For me, this was an awesome day. I hope you enjoy the pictures!