Hiking Kentuckys Red River Gorge: Your Definitive Guide to the Jewel of the Southeast
Copyright 2012 and 2019 by Sean Patrick Hill
All rights reserved
Published by Menasha Ridge Press
Distributed by Publishers Group West
Printed in China
Second edition, first printing
Cover design and maps: Scott McGrew
Interior design: Annie Long
Cover photos: Top: Patrick Jennings/Shutterstock.com; bottom: Alexey Stiop/Shutterstock.com
Interior photos: Sean Patrick Hill
Project editor: Holly Cross
Proofreader: Emily Beaumont
Indexer: Rich Carlson
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Hill, Sean Patrick, author.
Title: Hiking Kentuckys Red River Gorge : your definitive guide to the jewel of the Southeast / Sean Hill.
Description: Second edition. | Birmingham : Menasha Ridge Press, [2019] Summary: The rugged wilderness of Kentuckys Red River Gorge is like no other. Dense forests, wondrous rock formations, and awe-inspiring views make it a paradise thats waiting to be explored. Whether youre a beginner or an experienced hiker, youll find carefully maintained trails that are perfect for your needs Provided by publisher.
Identifiers: LCCN 2019018570 | ISBN 9781634041379 (paperback) ISBN 9781634041386 (ebook)
Subjects: LCSH: HikingKentuckyRed River GorgeGuidebooks. Red River Gorge (Ky.)Guidebooks.
Classification: LCC GV199.42.K42 H55 2019 | DDC 796.5109769dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2019018570
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DISCLAIMER This book is intended only as a guide to select trails in the Red River Gorge area and does not guarantee hiker safetyyou hike at your own risk. Neither Menasha Ridge Press nor Sean Patrick Hill is liable for property loss or damage, personal injury, or death that may result from accessing or hiking the trails described. Please be especially cautious when walking in potentially hazardous terrains with, for example, steep inclines or drop-offs. Please read carefully the introduction to this book, as well as safety information from other sources. Familiarize yourself with current weather reports and maps of the area you plan to visit (in addition to the maps provided in this guidebook). Be cognizant of park regulations and always follow them. Do not take chances.
Dedication
For my daughter, Teagan; my brother, Michael; and everyone who bought my book the first time around.
VIEW FROM TUNNEL RIDGE ROAD
Contents
Acknowledgments
I AM GRATEFUL for the many organizations and individuals who helped, whether they knew it or not, with the writing, hiking, and research necessary for this book:
Claire Suer, Susan Haynes, Holly Cross, Scott McGrew, and Emily Beaumont at Menasha Ridge Press, for their patience as I put together the book.
The staff at the Gladie Cultural-Environmental Learning Center in the Red River Gorge, for information and conditions on the trails.
Charlie Rowe, U.S. Forest Service employee and leader of the all-volunteer Red River Gorge Trail Crew, for some general updates on trails that had been updated or rerouted since this books first edition.
Red River Gorgeous Cabin Rental for the use of the Huckleberry Farmhouse while I completed the last few hikes and photographs for this new edition.
The various authors who gave me the inspiration to start on the best hikes of the Gorge, including Wendell Berry, Jerrell Goodpaster, Robert Ruchhoft, Michael Brown, Hiram Rogers, and members of the Bluegrass Group of the Kentucky Sierra Club.
Sean Patrick Hill
Preface
IT IS NOT UNWARRANTED to say that the preservation of Kentuckys Red River Gorge began with a single hike. More than 50 years ago, on November 18, 1967, members of the Cumberland Chapter of the Sierra Club invited U.S. Supreme Court Justice William O. Douglas for a walk in an area that, in the prevailing plan at the time, was to be flooded behind a dam. Joined by residents of the area who also opposed the dam, the groupwhich included a young Diane Sawyer, a correspondent from The New York Times, and hundreds of demonstratorsset out on a 3-mile hike in the wilderness along what is now a National Wild and Scenic River.
The plan would have called for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to build a dam to control flooding in the rolling countryside downstream from the Gorge. It helped that Justice Douglas was an avid environmentalist, calling places like the Gorge the spiritual inheritance of America, as Lexingtons Herald-Leader quoted him in its Sunday edition. Later, at a dinner hosted by the Sierra Club, Douglas told some 246 people that We dont live, my friends, by bread alone; we live by the great spiritual values. Thats why I think your fight for the little Red River Gorge is symbolic of the great fight thats going on all round the United States. This marks the Red River Gorgewhich I would not say is small by any measureas not only an impressive natural area but also as a legacy, much in the way that Yosemite National Park is a legacy bequeathed to the United States because Sierra Club founder John Muir had the foresight to invite then-President Teddy Roosevelt for a camping trip.
Still, it took time for the Gorge to be preserved as the national geologic area it is today. Public sentiment against the proposed dam grew, fueled in part by Wendell Berrys seminal book, The Unforeseen Wilderness. Eventually, the Army Corps of Engineers gave up. Today, the area sees about half a million visitors who hike, camp, rock climb, or just tour the well-paved loop in their automobiles. If the Gorge had not been preserved, many of the cliffs, rock shelters, and spectacular arches would have been submerged and lost.
When you first visit Red River Gorge, especially if you arrive from the Bluegrass region or the plains of Ohio, you almost immediately notice the landscape changing. The Red River carves its way out of the Cumberland Plateau, the uplifted striations of Newman limestone and iron-rich Corbin sandstone, rocks dating to the Mississippian and Pennsylvanian geologic periods, each more than 300 million years old. In spring, flowering rhododendron and pink ladys slippers adorn the stone; in autumn, the fiery leaves of red maple and the golden leaves of yellow poplar provide the palette. In winter, the cliffs are draped with ice, and in summer, with willowy maidenhair ferns.
Approaching the Gorge, you will undoubtedly have heard about its arches. Red River Gorge lays claim to the highest concentration of sandstone arches east of the Mississippi. Other arches are fashioned of limestone. Red River Gorge also has an incredible concentration of trees of an astounding varietypine, maple, oak, magnolia, poplar, ash, beech, hickory, and hemlock. The Daniel Boone National Forest, of which the Gorge is a part, provides habitat for an estimated 67 different species of reptiles and amphibians, 46 species of mammals, and 100 species of birds, including Kentuckys famous warblers.
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