Mountain goat spotted ‘dancing’ on top of Subaru

CLEAR CREEK COUNTY, Colo. (KKTV/Gray News) - A woman found comical evidence of a wildlife encounter on her car after returning from a hike near Mount Blue Sky in Colorado.

“Dude, those are hoof prints on my car,” Mindy Williford can be heard saying on camera as she filmed the hood of her Subaru. “There was a goat on my car!”

In the video, Williford walked around her vehicle documenting the minimal damage done, but a mountain goat obviously decided to play king of the mountain on her car.

“Oh my God,” Williford said. “I wish I could have seen that.”

Thanks to the power of the internet and a Colorado photographer, Williford’s wish was granted.

Michael Ryno has eight years of photography experience, but despite all of the expensive camera gear he totes around, he had to reach for his cell phone to capture a moment that would eventually go viral.

“I pulled over and started photographing, particularly the babies,” Ryno said in an interview with KKTV. “This time of the year the young ones are running around and frolicking on the rocks.”

Ryno had snapped some amazing shots of the young mountain goats when he noticed some of the animals start to do something interesting.

“I was taking photographs and all of a sudden a couple of adults started climbing up on the car,” he said.

Ryno had the experience and knowledge to know, that when a wild animal is doing something interesting, you should still keep your distance. But that didn’t mean he couldn’t document it.

In the video, one of the mountain goats is seen climbing to the roof of the car, and then on top of the rooftop carrier. Once on top, it began to jump or “dance” on the rack.

“I never expected one of them to get up on top of the roof rack and do its little dance,” Ryno said. “I was at the right place at the right time that particular morning.”

Ryno posted the moment to Instagram, watching the views climb into the hundreds, then the thousands. As of Wednesday, the video has more than a million views and about 80,000 hearts.

Someone noticed the vanity license plate reading “GLAMP” on the Subaru, resulting in the internet helping connect Williford and Ryno.

Ryno learned that Williford’s style of camping is far from “glamping,” but he’ll never forget the moment a goat decided to take over her car.

“I have a lot of images I’m proud of, that were used in competitions and won awards and things like that,” Ryno said of his photography work. “I think this one still ranks up at the top as far as my experiences, interestingly, this happened to be with my cell phone.”

Ryno shared a message for anyone else interested in exploring Colorado.

“I encourage everybody with their camera gear, phones, and so forth, whenever you’re out, just keep your eyes open,” Ryno said. “Be sure to keep your eyes open and look around your environment, you never know what you’re going to see.”

You can see more of Ryno’s work on his website. Ryno is also the president of Professional Photographers of Colorado and previously served as the president of the Lone Tree Photo Club.

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