Today was yet another day of adventure - and another day the weather forecast was wrong. This morning we got a late start. None of us was awake until after 8 am. It was nice to finally sleep in. We woke up to rain (the forecast said overcast with a slight chance of rain). After breakfast we headed to the outlets to maybe do some shopping. I don't think the rain ever stopped the whole time we were there. After some shopping we had lunch. Then we decided to head into the mountains once again, despite the rain. Cayden was tired and we figured we'd drive while he napped. We decided to head to the area of the park where Jay said you were supposed to be able to spot elk. It was quite a drive - about 2 hours. Cayden was fast asleep so we decided we might as well go for it since it was our last day here.
The majority of the drive is highway but when we got close to the spot in the park we wanted we had to go up a very narrow, very winding dirt road that dropped off on one side with no guard rail. I couldn't look down because it made me physically sick. At one point we had to pull over close the the edge to let other cars go by and I almost started to cry. It was just so nerve wracking. The whole time I was just hoping against hope the drive was worth it. We FINALLY made it to the top and we were so relieved. When we got into the area, the information was not wrong. We were able to spot elk! First we saw 2 eating out in a small clearing. Then further along we saw a large group - I think I counted 21 - closer to the road, just enjoying the afternoon. The park was not busy and we were able to take lots and lots of pictures. It was amazing to see - totally worth the worrisome drive.
Leaving the park Jay programmed the GPS and it had us take a different road out. We were happy at first because we were spared a tretcherous drive. But, after a few mintues we realized it was really more of a trade off. The road we took out was another very winding dirt road, not so much of a drop off, but this road was very rocky. Lets just said it made for a very interesting drive. I believe we took that road for 12 miles! Finally we made it to some civilization and eventually found the highway.
Jay and I were talking later about how it would have been easy to not even consider the drive once we found out it was 2 hours each way, or give up on the drive when we saw the winding road and the steep drop off and just head back to the easy highway drive and some shopping instead. We didn't have any guarantee that we'd even see the elk once we finally got there. But, we continued ahead and the "pay off" for the trip was great! You could look the same way at life...
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