SNAPSHOT

Photographer SUMIO HARADA, who lives near West Glacier, took pictures of a mother mountain goat (shedding her winter coat) and her kids crossing a stream in Glacier National Park in mid-June near the Walton Goat Lick. “It’s an exposed riverbank where minerals concentrated in the soil attract mountain goats,” Harada says. “To reach the lick, goats sometimes have to cross Sheep Creek or even the Middle Fork of the Flathead River. This mother wanted to cross the creek, but it appeared too fast for the kids, so she kept hesitating. I watched them for more than an hour, until finally she leaped over the stream and the kids immediately jumped in after her. As you can see, they all made it.” n