Red River Gorge was a place Brian talked about often so I was naturally quite excited when we had the chance to plan a trip there with his best friend and brother for a weekend of hiking! Our initial thought was to camp, but the near 100 degree temperatures turned us to the idea of getting a cabin instead, probably the best idea we’ve ever had. After an eventful drive down to Kentucky including a car key broken in half and an amazing infomercial like story involving Gorilla Glue (that stuff doesn’t mess around), we rolled up to the Nada Tunnel. Nada Tunnel is a 900 foot tunnel is entrance to Red River Gorge. It was created by log haulers in the 1900’s, it’s only 12 feet wide and 12 feet tall.. so it’s a pretty tight squeeze no matter the size of vehicle!

We got to the cabin and quickly threw our things inside before lacing up our boots and hitting the trails. We chose Grays Arch for our first hike of the weekend. It was a quick 3.4 mile loop that took us to a huge arch in the middle of the forest. We lost and gained quite a bit of elevation on the hike, but the trail was nicely marked and the arch is a great place to sit under and admire while you take a break and have a snack. Once we reached the cabin we took showers and cooked dinner. We enjoyed playing some games before heading to bed and resting before a packed day of hiking.

Saturday morning we woke up at the crack of dawn to get ready for our long day of hiking. Rain was pattering down on the roof and the clouds looked fairly ominous. Everyone had breakfast and got dressed for the hike, trying to ignore the rain. Once we got into the car and reached the trailhead, the rain had stopped! The trail started winding up through the forest and brought us to a steep wall with tiny footholds worn into the rock face (pictured above), known as Indian Staircase. We scrambled up the side of the wall and were rewarded with views of the green valley stretching for miles and miles. The trail continued on a ridge, wrapping around a steep drop off below. At times, the path was only inches away from the cliffside, a couple of the guys weren’t super excited about that. Our final destination was an area known for cliff jumping named, Turtle Rock. Brian and his friend jumped off a few times while Brian’s brother and I watched along with kayakers and other jumpers enjoying the shoreline. The evening consisted of a hot dinner and cold showers before bed.

On Sunday we awoke early again, our day packed with more hiking. We set out to tackle Double Arch Trail and Auxier Ridge, totaling in over 9 miles of hiking. The Double Arch Trail led us down deep into the forest, dense with poison ivy and paw paw trees. We climbed up to Double Arch which is an arch within an arch. The trail continued over the arches and led to more amazing views over the gorge. We met up with the Auxier Ridge Trail which took us to Courthouse Rock (first photo of post). A long and steep staircase led us to the ridge which, again, looked over the gorge, we could even see Double Arch across the way!

On our final morning at Red River Gorge we hiked to Natural Bridge via Battleship Rock. We climbed up some slippery stone steps to reach the ridge where Battleship Rock was. The fog was thick through the forest, making the views of the gorge below even more beautiful. We followed the ridge and it took us to the top of Natural Bridge. We climbed below, squeezing through a tiny gap in a rock. The bridge looked like it was man made, perfectly arched with crisp edges. Once we reached the car we packed up and hit the road for Indiana.

The stormy weather in the forecast thankfully held off and gave us the most beautiful weekend of hiking Red River Gorge could offer!

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