Fourteeners are never fun until you're at the top, and even then the staggering views can take a beat to settle on you when you're busy catching your breath and scarfing down the best PB&J you've ever had. The natural brilliance of it all comes a bit quicker when it clops right up to you at 14,250+ feet in the form of a shaggy mountain goat.

Such was the scene this summer as my wife and I summited Grays Peak in Colorado, like a tranquil vignette in the middle of an adventure film. The goat was as peaceful as could be, fascinated by us and our Spicy Nacho Doritos and content to walk within feet of us without concern. He hung around for 10 minutes or so, long enough for us to be thoroughly wowed and suitably grateful for this moment stolen from a troubling year.

I tried to snap as many iPhone photos as I could without thinking too long about any of them, just desperate to capture the gorgeous zen of the moment without interrupting the fragile peace as the world seemed to hold its breath up there above the clouds. It wasn't until later that I realized what I had: a fortuitous and extemporaneous look directly into the eyes of this friendly, stoic animal. It was immediately frozen as a forever-experience, in both our memories and in my simple, lucky phone.