In the cold, early morning at 1:00 AM the Scott family starts their family road trip in the chilly Colorado Rocky Mountains. Dad Mike, Mom Clare, eight year old John, and 10 year old Sam are squeezed into the family’s old SUV. They have blankets, food, clothes, and some camping equipment, so the car is packed tight like pickles in a pickle jar.. The family planned on staying at Rocky Mountain National Park for about a week. They will sleep in a special tent that was made for very cold places. Everyone was excited, because the park was a place they had never visited before. 

On the way up there the family's car starts to make some weird noises, but Mike blows it off and continues driving. After a little over half an hour goes by, the noise comes back, so Mike pulls over and goes to check under the hood of the car. While Mike is checking on the car, he doesn’t see anything wrong with the car other than it being a rusted bucket of nails, as Mike later said to Clare. So the family gets back on the road, but soon after that first stop, the car shuts off! 

Unfortunately, there's a huge problem. Mike has never worked on a car before in his entire life. He has seen friends do it, but he has no real experience. Mike doesn’t want to worry his family, so he says nothing. He gets back out into the cold night to continue to mess with the car and thankfully the car finally turns on. The family finally gets back on the road. They are driving along peacefully for about ten minutes when all of a sudden, BOOM, the engine explodes and the car bursts into flames. Clare screams and both boys start talking about how cool the flames are. Mike runs to the trunk and grabs the fire extinguisher, and he is able to put out the flames pretty quick. 

As it turns out, the car didn’t really explode, so the family was able to get their clothes and food out of the car. While Mike tries to fix the engine, Clare took the kids for a walk into the dark forest to hopefully find some help. As he is looking at the car, Mike hears Clare, Sam, and John start screaming as loud as they can. After a few minutes go by, Clare and the boys’ screams for help start getting softer and farther away. After a while, Mike doesn’t hear them anymore, so he decides he should go into the forest to look for them. There is just one problem: Clare and the boys went to the forest from the east side of the and Mike went to the forest from west side of the car. Mike had been involved in fixing the car’s engine, so he did not see which direction they went. Now the family is all separated and neither Mike or Clare even know it. 

An hour goes by and both Clare and Mike are looking for each other and still no sign of each other. They are calling each other’s name, but the wind is howling and the sound of their voices does not go far. Eventually, the family stumbles back on each. The Smith family decide that looking for help in the dark is not the best idea, so they slowly make their way back to their dead car. 

The Smiths then started putting their campsite together. They had planned to make it to the top of the mountain before they unpacked, but they had no choice. Mike and Same put their special tent up and try to start a fire with the wood they brought. The wind was blowing so hard, they could not get the flames to start. Little John made a joke about how they could really use the flames that Mike had put out earlier. Mike did not think that was funny at all. The family decided to put their sleeping bags close together and just try to get some sleep. Sleeping in the cold was not easy, but the family was pretty tired after driving and walking through the forest and screaming like they did. 

Around 4:00 AM the family is woken up by growling right near their heads. Clare starts to stutter, “It sounds like, it sounds like, like a bear!”. The family makes the decision to run for the car, so they grab their shoes and all take off. Once again, the parents are shaking with fear,