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Eli took a step toward the ice, but I gently pulled him back.
“We’re not walking on the ice today, buddy. How about we have a snack? Then we can hike down and I’ll take you somewhere where you can play in the snow.”
“Yeah! Snacks!”
I chuckled as I brushed away the top foot or so of snow from a couple of big rocks before we sat down in our snow pants. I dished out lunch and Eli was surprisingly quiet. Too quiet. Suddenly, I worried he wasn’t having as much fun as I’d hoped.
“This is awesome, Dad. I’ve never been here in the winter,” Eli said around a big mouthful of a bite of a turkey sandwich.
My heart sighed in relief.
“Winter is my favorite time up here. It’s so quiet and it’s like a completely different world. The snow changes everything and makes it all seem just a little magical.”
We sat side-by-side quietly eating our sandwiches and taking everything in until it felt like it was getting a little too cold. I figured it was time to go before our fingers started to ache from the cold.
“What do you say we hike back to the car? There’s a great place we can go sledding before heading home.”
“I love sledding!” Eli exclaimed, jumping up from his rock and scrambling to strap his snowshoes on again.
I laughed again. I found myself laughing a lot around Eli. He was just so full of energy and light, it was hard not to get caught up in it all.
We trudged back down to the car, Eli wanting to know all about the hibernating bears. He seemed a little skeptical of the whole premise, but didn’t look too worried.
I couldn’t help but flash back to the hikes I did with my father growing up near Durango. As I did just then with Eli, he would try and settle my nerves while also instilling in me a deep respect for nature and the mountain’s true residents.
We got back to the car and out of our heaviest layers before heading off to the sledding hill.
Eli’s eyes lit up like the plastic saucer I’d bought to fly down the hill. Although looking at it again, it seemed much taller and much steeper than I had initially thought. I tried to keep the worry out of my eyes and voice as Eli boarded the sled in front of me.
“Okay, you ready?” I asked tentatively, almost more to myself than to Eli.
“Yeah!”
“Alright, hold on. One…two…”
“Three!” Eli finished the countdown, and I pushed us off the flat top and we soared down the hill.
The cold wind rushed into my lungs and past my ears, drowning out any sound. I couldn’t tell if Eli was panicked or having fun. I couldn’t tell ifIwas panicked or having fun.
About halfway down the hill, we hit a small bump in the snow I hadn’t seen and Eli tumbled off the sled, quickly rolling before coming to a stop on the side of the hill.
“Eli!” I yelled, full-on panic now taking over. I bailed from the sled myself and rolled to a stop before launching myself into a run uphill.
“Eli! Eli! Eli!”
I was breathless by the time I reached him, my heart nearly beating out of my body, and all the blood in my veins turned cold. When I reached him, I gently rolled him over to find tears streaming down his face and quiet laughter puffing out from his lips.
I let out the deepest exhale and sat back on my heels.
“That was so much fun, Dad! Can we go again?”
Eli couldn’t stop laughing, and reluctantly, I let him slide a few more times before we headed back to the car to go home.
His wide smile as we drove down from the national park into the town below, eased the tension in my muscles from the sledding mishap. Since I had found out about Eli, it was the most like adadI’d ever felt.
Did parents ever stop worrying about their kids?
We made one more stop before going back to Maya’s house: the bookstore.
