I didnt get much sleep as we had an exciting night after a bear decided to pay a visit to our garbage can in our front driveway. It was a big bear too. I thought I might see a bear this weekend, since we are spending it in the mountains in KY, but I did not expect to see one before we even left home! Despite getting to bed late and struggling to calm down enough to sleep, we woke up ready to get going.
We headed out sometime after 10 am and went the familiar way through Oak Ridge to the Its a long drive, so we chatted about politics, science and our dreams for the future. After we talked for a bit, I listened to a Sherlock Holmes audio book. We ate lunch in Williamsburg and then went on up to London, KY where we left the freeway and the true adventure began. We drove through some beautiful countryside that followed rolling hills and quiet little rivers. Having lived in Winchester, which is the biggest city near Red River Gorge, Rob was familiar with the area and
some of what it had to offer. When he saw a sign for the Natural Bridge, he suggested we stop and ride the sky lift and hike a little. I had never been, but he had been twice and liked it a lot.
It was a really nice area with lots of streams and gorgeous rock formations. The resort area where the natural bridge was highlighted included camping, restaurants, kayak rentals and atv rentals. It was very active as is expected on Memorial Day weekend. we didnt have any real wait to get our tickets and get on board a ski lift that took us up the mountain. The ride up was just so beautiful. The view of the mountains and the stream below coupled with the quiet serenity of the long, slow trip up was wonderful. At the top, we quickly exited the lift and made our way along the ridge trail to the actual natural bridge.
There were a surprising amount of foreign visitors. I heard, German, Indian, Japanese and several others that I wasnt sure of the origin. I am always amazed at where foreign travelers chose to go in the US. It is
a big country with countless famous sites, so what brings you to the Kentucky mountains? I dont blame them though really, it is quite beautiful!
The Natural Bridge is a about 100 feet above the trail below and about 20 feet wide (maybe a little more). There are no rails to block your fall is you get to close to the edge and the there were a lot of puddles where the recent rain had left their deposits. The unobstructed views of the surrounding countryside were breathtaking, so we joined the rest of the visitors getting pictures by the edge. After the obligatory pictures, we decided to go down one of the trails. I am having some knee trouble, but it wasnt too outlandish and the trail was short. It was really nice to stretch our legs after such a long drive.
After our hike and another beautiful ride on the lift, we were back down at our car and ready to get on to the cabin. It was well after 4 pm, so we could check in whenever we wanted to now. The drive on to the cabin took us through some more beautiful countryside. There were
tree filled forests, rolling hills and open pastures all green with the lushness of late spring. Our drive took us through a long rock single lane tunnel. I expected that there were some kind of controls in place to ensure that you did not meet another the opposite way, especially since there were a lot of drivers on the road. In fact there was a line of Jeeps waiting to go through when we got there. There were no controls in place at all, however, and each driver had to simply get up to the entrance and check to see if there was before proceeding. This led to the inevitable face to face encounter for the vehicle ahead of us. We and the line of cars behind us had to back up in succession in order to allow the car in front of us to back out of the tunnel. It turned out that two other cars were ahead of that driver and also had to back out.
