Being Brave: Heaven in the Mountains

This must be what Heaven is like.

Untouched, unexplainable, breathtaking.

I will admit to being a total beach bum. I see God in the waves with my toes covered by the movement of the surf. Always have. Always will. My soul is always well near the sound of the waves.

But today I saw God in the mountains.

Brian and Chad took us up to "the cabin" where they spend 2 weeks every October elk hunting. To get there, we had to travel over 3,000 feet up into the mountains. We stopped at Cottonwood Pass to snap a picture before heading onto a long, wet, dirt road that isn't even open all year round because it gets too snow covered to pass.

Once we got to the cabin, I understood what all the fuss was about.
This is the view from the cabin's deck.....

With a view like this, why would you ever leave?
And then there were dozens of these guys buzzing around everywhere. I have never seen so many hummingbirds in my life. And if you follow me on instagram, sorry for the 3 videos of hummingbirds. I was obviously impressed.

We saw a deer when we were walking next door. Just hanging out by the road. Completely unscathed by our presence.

This guy was happy.

These little people were happy.

And I fell in love with a 1 bedroom cabin with a view.

But there was more they wanted to show us.

We jumped back in the car and headed to the Trading Post and the one restaurant around to grab some lunch. Of course we ate in a log cabin.

After lunch we headed to Tin Cup (about a 10 minute drive) where only 2 families stay through the winter every year because it gets that cold and there are no real roads. This is undeveloped beauty, people. It was all amazing. (Not saying I would ever live here in the winter. But I am saying it's awesome in the summer).

We came to see this.

And let the kids do this.

And catch these.

On our way out of Tin Cup, we had to stop to see this through the lens. This is by far, my favorite shot from today. And for the record, I haven't edited a single one of these pictures. 1. Because I don't know how, and 2. because they don't need it.

Every time we drove somewhere new, I was captivated. Truly unbelievable glory abounded. Beauty surrounded us in every direction, every place we turned.

After our trip to Taylor Park (where we ate lunch) and Tin Cup (where we fed and caught trout) and the dam (where we watched the river flow while the kids threw rocks, the dads threw the fly fishing rode for a while, and we basked in the beauty of our surroundings), we headed back to the cabin where the hummingbirds came out in full glory.

Well, these might be my favorite pictures too. And I have so many more.....I might do an entire post on hummingbirds. Who knows?

I took Wyatt into the cabin to crawl around a little bit and explore. He was a great traveler today.

When it was time to leave the cabin, we headed to what Brian and Chad call 3 mile. It's just a dirt road on mile marker 3 that they hunt at in the winter. And we saw all this along the way.