Quick Getaway in Elk County

Ricky and I celebrated our 10 year anniversary on Friday!  We are still planning on going on a longer trip out west this fall as a "2nd honeymoon" type trip but we wanted to do something small and nice the actual weekend of our anniversary too.  So this was kind of thrown together last minute but it worked out and we had such a fun time!  We've been to Elk County PA many times before but never in the middle of winter before so we had no idea if we would actually see any elk or not.  We left a little before 11 on Friday and just took our time driving up, the kids stayed at Ricky's parents for the weekend.  We ended up getting there right at dusk and decided to drive up to the viewing area before it got dark.  There weren't any elk up there but there were at least 60 in people's yards on the way up to the viewing area!  And two small bulls in the main cabin's yard as we pulled up to check in!

Saturday morning we got up bright and early, OK, not really... we got out of the cabin around 9am and decided to go on a "little" hike, which ended up being 2 hours long, and yes, it was cold :P  It was so fun though, and beautiful scenery.  We saw 100+ head of elk this morning too!

 It looks nice and sunny but it was windy and cold on the hills.  I was lamenting the fact that I had left my hat and gloves in the car! 

 We found a really neat little trail to hike on through the woods though and that was much nicer since the wind wasn't blowing  in there.

 We were supposed to be searching for elk sheds (antlers that fall off in the winter)  but I was enjoying the scenery too much I think :)

 My awesome new muck boots that I got to try out for the first time:

 They will come in very handy come turkey season!  I was trekking all through the woods and swamp and streams and my feet were nice and warm and dry the whole time :)
This guy, was wondering what in the world I was doing taking a picture of my boots :P

This was my favorite part of the hike:

There was quite a drop off on the left and I couldn't help thinking about how nervous my mom would have been :P  We spotted some more elk on the other ridge.

 And they spotted us too!:

After our awesome hike we stopped at the visitor center and walked around there for a little while.  The visitor center is really nice and only opened in 2010 so it's still fairly new.  A couple times when we had been there before there were elk in the fields grazing, but not this time.  Just this big iron elk and a goofy tourist :P

After lunch we decided it was nap time so we went back to the cabin, built a fire and *gasp* took. a. nap!  It was glorious! ha ha!  That afternoon we drove into the town of Ridgway to see their chainsaw carvers convention that they were having.  It was actually a lot of fun!  We went in to all the little shops and walked all around the town.  Some of the carvers were so amazingly talented! 

 Look at the detail on this!  I mean, come on!

 I was thinking we should have something like this made from the big eye sore of a stump in our back yard!

 This is just incredible

 I thought this chair looked a little lop sided:

 one of the carvers at work:

Supposedly there were 200 carvers coming in for this big convention.  Saturday was the very first day for it and not very crowded at all, which was fine with us!

 I liked this big bear with the shotgun and fishing pole:

 I liked his sheepish grin the best :)

 on the way back Ricky spotted 5 dear walking through the woods.

We decided to drive back up to the viewing area and I was so glad we did because there was a huge herd up there and the lighting was really good for pictures!

 I think this one is so pretty:

 

And this one, it's so beautiful up there!

 We thought we'd try to run out and catch one to bring home to the kids :P

 A calf:

Sunday morning we got up and drove around a little more, saw more elk, went to the visitor center, packed up and headed home.  The kids were ridiculously happy to see us, and we were happy to see them too :)  It was such a fun weekend though.