Unknowingly Lost

A few weekends ago Chris's family came up and spent the weekend in Park City. That same weekend they closed I-80 West Bound so when we went up to spend the day with them on Saturday we had to find a different way home to Salt Lake. We were told our other two options were coming through Provo Canyon or Ogden Canyon. Chris spent a bit of time trying to find the best way home and decided that the fastest way would be to stay on 224 all the way through Provo Canyon. Most of you probably don't remember but that was the one Saturday we got quite a bit of rain. We left about dusk (8:20) Saturday night and set out to find our way home. If any of you have ever followed 224 through Park City it is quite confusing. So to even stay on the road was a challenge for us at first. I think we got lost 3 times alone just trying to stay on 224. The road literally goes through a resort parking lot. Talk about confusing. Anywho... we finally found 224 and started winding our way up the mountain. There was a truck in front of us and a Hummer behind us so we figured we must be headed in the right direction. About 20 minutes into our winding steep drive we come across a sign that says "Dirt road 15 MPH" And it wasn't kidding all of the sudden we are headed straight up the mountain on this washboard dirt road that was literally on the side of a cliff and barley wide enough for 2 cars. Keep in mind we had taken our Toyota Camry and not our SUV. The truck in front of us and the Hummer behind us probably didn't mind but I thought we were going to die. Now going back to that rain I mentioned earlier... the roads were wet and muddy and slippery. I thought we were for sure on some 4-wheeler trail and Chris was grunting about how if the state was going to close I-80 they needed to make sure the alternate routes were safe... and we continued our climb straight up the mountain on the muddy washboard road. Finally right after we came out at the top the road turned back into a paved road and we were headed back down. Not too much later we passed Solitude.... yep that's right... Solitude. For those of you who know your canyons Solitude is not in Provo Canyon it is in Cottonwood. And that is exactly where we came out right on Fort Union out of Cottonwood canyon. seeing as we had lived and nothing catastrophic happened we didn't mind the shortcut that put us out 10 minutes away from our house. But we definitely did not take the road we had planned. :) So if you are in for a good adventure ( and a beautiful drive) and heights and dirt roads don't freak you out too much, take 224 through park city and all the way to Cottonwood Heights.