Our First Kentucky Camping Trip - Part 1

So many firsts in our new place!  We've taken our first road trip and had our first visitor, and it was only a matter of time before we hitched up Zelda the travel trailer and took her camping on this side of the country!

Smiling underneath the namesake of Natural Bridge State Resort Park

As I mentioned in the initial blog post about Mom's visit, I ended up with extra vacation days when I didn't use as many as expected for the move (mine expire on August 31st, the end of our fiscal year); to avoid losing them, Chris and I both took off the entire week of the 4th of July (nine whole days away from work was amazing - it was hard to go back, that's for sure).  We made reservations from Monday through Wednesday to camp at Natural Bridge State Resort Park, figuring it would be less crowded earlier in the week, and we could be back at home with the fuzzies by the time the fireworks started going off in earnest.  The Park has two different campgrounds within it, and we selected Middle Fork, mainly because that was where there was availability.  We ended up in site B5, which worked great for us - it had power and water hookups, and the campground's dump station on site, while being on the wrong side of the road, traffic-wise, was easy to use.

Check in didn't start at the Park until 2pm, and since it was only one hour away from home, we spent the morning dropping the dogs off at their boarding spot (a different option than for the Cincinnati trip - Luxury Pet Services, which worked out well - they were far cleaner when we got them back this time), doing yard work, and watching Stage 3 of the Tour de France.  Eventually, 1pm rolled around and we started the short drive to the Park, finding our spot and checking in without any trouble.  Natural Bridge is right next to the Red River Gorge Geological Area, and while we planned on hiking there in the upcoming days, after we set up the rig, we headed to nearby Hemlock Lodge to hit the trails close to the campground.  

We figured it was good to see the Natural Bridge after which the park is named, and we planned a circular route, using Balanced Rock Trail to get there and the Original Trail to get back.  As soon as we got to the trailhead, however, we needed to adjust our plan, as fires in April 2023 had caused most of Balanced Rock to close; we could still see the rock itself, though, so we headed up the staircase.

This trail is labeled as the steepest one in the Park, and it includes around 600 stairs.

I don't know if we did them all on our trek, but it sure felt like it!

While we didn't see any bats, we have a pretty good feeling they live in here.

Here's me, doing my bat dance for them.

Before too long (.25 miles or so), we made it to Balanced Rock itself, and it was pretty darn cool.

Most of the arches, bridges, and other formations in the Park and Gorge are either sandstone or limestone,

although you can clearly find other geological buddies, like quartz and shale, as well.

Heading back down the way we came, we next hopped on the Original Trail and started up toward the Arch.  Hiking here is very, very different from hiking in Arizona; I never needed my sunglasses due to the thick tree cover, for example, and we had trouble getting over how remarkably green everything was.

This rock was massive, and the erosion of it was so cool

What a neat story!

Nature just can't be stopped here - these little guys were growing from the roof of the shelter

After about .75 miles, we turned a corner and found ourselves directly underneath the main attraction:

It's hard to get the whole bridge in just one picture

Look at those folks for scale - the arch really is darn big

Chris continued his exploration, heading up a teeny, tiny staircase to the top of the bridge, while I found a sittin' rock and chilled out below.

Yup, he really squeezed through there!

The view from the top was worth the trek!

After he returned, we headed back down the trail the way we'd come, hopping in the truck at the Lodge and getting back to Zelda and the campground around midafternoon.  We built up a campfire so we could cook a campfire potato (one of the highlights of camping, honestly) and eventually put together dinner (buffalo chicken sandwiches with grilled zucchini and the aforementioned tuber).  The weather was lovely on this day - the high was in the mid 70s - so we hung out in the shade of the trailer, singing songs and drinking adult beverages until it was time for bed.

Someone made a friend!  This is a robber fly, known for hanging by

its forelegs while consuming prey.  Nature is cool!

The next morning, we were up and drinking coffee/tea around 7, watching the Tour and heating up pre-cooked breakfast casserole and biscuits (we have an oven in the rig, but like most in-camper ovens, it's not amazing, so it's easier just to use it for reheating things, rather than baking them from scratch).  Before too much longer, we were suited up for another day of hiking, this time within the Gorge itself.  Our first stop was about a 30 minute drive, to the trailhead for Sky Bridge.  Sky Bridge was the furthest spot away from camp we'd planned to hike, and the trail was rated easy, so we figured it was a good way to start the day.

Driving in - so many trees!!!!!

As you might imagine from something called "Sky Bridge," it had some amazing vistas:

A short, somewhat paved trail brought us through more cool stone features:

Little plants, making homes in the weathered stone

You'd see this type of thing in Arizona, too, except there, the plants were succulents

Eventually, we reached the Bridge, the highlight of this hike:

It's pretty epic, that's for sure

The trail takes you straight across the top of the Bridge, and then underneath it on the way back

We made our way down off the Bridge to start the short (.5 mile) hike back:

The underneath side of Sky Bridge

With our first hike of the day done, it was time to hop back in the truck and find our next trailhead!  Coming up in future blog posts, hiking, hiking, and more hiking!  Also, pizza and the fattest rainbow trout you've ever seen!

Later!

Amy