The Red River Gorge Loop

Welcome to your guided tour of the Red River Gorge Geological Area! It's only about an hour southeast of Lexington, located in hilly Eastern Kentucky! The National Natural Landmark, managed by the US Forest Service is awesome for a variety of reasons: Tons of hiking and backpacking, huge natural stone arches, unique plants and animals, archeological sites from early settlements in the region, and tons of rock climbing. The road loops around the gorge offering a tour of the gorge's unique features.

1. Nada Tunnel

The one lane tunnel was created in the early 1900s for use by the logging industry. You still have to wait outside the 900 foot tunnel for opposing traffic to make its way through before driving through.

2. Suspension Bridge

We found this cute suspension bridge back along one of the backpacking trails in the gorge! How adorable, right? There are some strange sites out in Eastern Kentucky... cars abandoned, tires in the river, drinking water from mountain springs instead of plumbing... these little gems are pretty special tucked away in the landscape are pretty sweet.

3. Gladie Historic Site

This site still houses the homestead and barn of a historic settlement in the area. The day we were there some local craftsmen were doing demonstrations of woodworking, firearms, and music from the era when the homestead was thriving.

4. Sky Bridge

Sky Bridge is the best known rock bridge in Geological Area being 75 feet long and 23 feet high. The trail leads over the top of the arch, around the rock and back around underneath arch and along a crazy rock face. Don't the patterns look like fingerprints?

5. Angel Windows

This little stop along the route had some crazy geological features. Eroded cubbies in the rock, striated textures running along the rock surfaces, crumbled rocks, etc, etc. It looks a little bit like parts of it were constructed by Salvador Dali only fewer clocks.

6. Princess Arch

Princess Arch isn't the biggest but it's pretty cool to be able to walk across the top of it.

You can't really tell, but this was taken while I was leaning over the edge of the arch.

Let's take a minute to examine some of the local fungi! Lindsey and I were on a mission to find the most exotic species of mushrooms (or whatever) along the trail. I'm not familiar with all the variety the fungi kingdom has to offer, but here are a few examples. The quarter in the picture is for size reference... you know, in case you want to bust out your "Guide to Kentucky Mushrooms" I felt a little like I was on that episode of Jamie Oliver where he and the truffle hunter travel the English countryside looking for the most delectable specimens. Except we didn't eat anything.

7. Chimney Rock Lookout

The geology in the area makes for some rocky footing! Look Out! The sign made me smile a little bit.

The region is so densely vegetated and the road follows the gullies, this overlook is one of the few places along the gorge loop that you can really see the "Gorge" and get a feel for the basin as a whole. The leaves were a couple weeks away from peak color but there were still some awesome yellows and oranges.

From the overlook we got to check out a group of rock climbers belaying off this rock.

8. Pizza and Rock Climbing

One of the guides to restaurants in the area suggested Miguel's Pizza and Rock Climbing as one of THE places to eat in the region. Truth be told, there's not that much as far as fine dining in Slade, Kentucky but Miguel's was a treat. In addition to the extensive pizza, pasta, salad, rope, and climbing shoes offered, there was also a huge campground out back and the parking lot was filled with license plate - many even from Colorado. I was totally unaware of the region's rock climbing appeal.



A slice of Lindsey and my pepperoni mushroom pizza along with a bottle of delicious Ale-8 (the unofficial beverage of Kentucky) It sure hit the spot!

9. Camping!

For the last night of our trip I was so excited to snag a campsite in Natural Bridge State Park. I checked out the campground map online and surveyed the primitive sites to determine the best one and make the reservations on the web site...


Pretty scenic, right? What the web site didn't show was that our camping spot was just across the creek from a large picnic area hosting a family reunion. So much for a perfect campsite. Oh well.

Despite the less-than-perfect campsite and some *minor* trouble getting the campfire started the weekend was great... as was getting home and recuperating.