Beauty Within the Fog

The hubby kicked off the New Year and planned a surprise trip for my birthday this January to head to Clyde, NC with our friends to stay in a cabin and explore the area. What an amazing trip it ended up being and I was definitely surprised!  Not only surprised at the fact that he could keep a secret from me and plan the entire trip without me knowing, but throughout our time staying in the mountains I learned a lot about myself, our relationship, nature, and life.

I of course had to fuel up for what was going to be a long day of driving and hiking.  We always try to be prepared to have a good meal before we set out for a long day of adventuring and we most certainly pack snacks to have every couple of hours.  No one wants to be stuck up on a mountain with someone hungry!

Chimney Rock Hike

After quite the car ride driving through some of the most winding mountain roads I have ever been on, we made it to Chimney Rock State Park!  

It was a little foggy as we started hiking but we kept an open mind.

We spotted this awesome look out point so we of course had to check it out.  Can you spot Griffin's little head?!

Griffin getting a head start hiking up to the top!

Just a handful of stairs to go!

Top of Chimney Rock View - All Fog!

What we should have seen....

Kind of unbelievable that our entire view was foggy.  The view we should have seen would have been breath-taking.  What a bummer!!!Oh well we said. You just can't predict the weather. Some of us decided to venture up to an even higher elevation called "Devil's Head". 

Still foggy but we hiked up some serious steps to get here!

Devil's Head
So, what do you think? Does that looks like a devil's head?  I was thinking more like an Egyptian artifact of some sort.  But this was right below where we hiked! Of course I had to snag this image from Google because we had no view of it but pretty cool to know we were standing right above it.


So, what did I take away from this hike?

It's not what you're doing that is important, it's who you are enjoying it with.

We could have been so upset that all that time planning, driving, and hiking we just saw fog.  We decided to embrace the new adventure that we experienced together.  We learned to enjoy the little things and I believe we left with a greater appreciation for them.

Be as ambitious as your pet.

Animals have a way at teaching us all kinds of life lessons. Griffin taught me to always keep moving forward no matter how many stairs were ahead and to lead life excited about what lies ahead no matter if the path is unclear.

  The most amazing view necessarily isn't from the top. 

 It's jumping over gates that read "closed due to weather" with friends and dogs to check out what lies off the beaten path. Because there might be something beautiful like a waterfall tucked away within the first 5 minutes of your hike.