Our first hike was called Rock Garden and was a roughly 2.5 mile loop inside the Natural Bridge State Park. We could have started the hike right from our campsites but it meant a ton of elevation climbing and stairs so we convinced the group to drive up to the lodge and start from there. In honestly, I don't think the group would have made it if we'd started at the bottom. There was plenty of elevation change and stairs as it was and I think we pushed the oldies to the edge with this hike. Uncle Rusty is 81 and Jeff had knee surgery on one knee and really needs to get it on the other. Even Mom was saying the hike was harder than she'd have liked.
This one isn't for little kids either. The whole time we hiked it I was saying "I think it's a good think Liz and Bobby didn't do this hike"....and low and behold we came across them just as we were finishing our hike and they said "We're thinking of doing something called Rock Garden" and we quickly told them to not. This hike ended at the Natural Bridge (pictures toward the end of this post). It was a beautiful fun hike - though, no dogs allowed for anyone who is planning a trip.
The next morning we hiked Creation Falls and Rock Bridge Arch. Creation Falls was a Liz recommendation and boy was it a great one! These photos are from the Falls area and it was exactly as promised, a perfect hike for kids. Her boys age 2 and 5 were able to most of it (with some carrying from Bobby). I think it was roughly 2 miles with some elevation change to keep it interesting, but not nearly as much as the Rock Garden hike. Liz and Bobby had tried to find this hike the first day - when we met them on the trail at the end of our hike, but she didn't have quite the right map. We had a 20 minute (or so) drive to get to the trail head.
Thankfully since we started early (per my decree that no hikes start after 8am) because we had the whole place to ourselves! We saw very few families on the hike and had no trouble finding parking (though the parking is not extensive here). By the time we were finishing though you could tell it was filling up, and fast. I bet we passed 20 cars headed in as we were heading out. Luckily for them we'd shown up with 4 cars, so us clearing out made room for the next wave.
If you've got kids and are in this area, make sure to add this hike to your list. Wear shoes that you can get wet and plan to spend some time at the falls (half way through the hike). It's cool down there thanks to the rocks, water, and low cavern-ish area. If it's going to be hot, pack a lunch and hang out in the water before climbing back out.
One afternoon Ryan, the girls and I were out and about and on the hunt for some shops to take the girls for souvenirs and we ended up driving the what I'll call the Red River Gorge loop drive taking you through the Nada Tunnel and around giving you the opportunity to check out many scenic outlooks and trailheads. We found a hike called the Sky Bridge so we pulled over to see what we'd learn. It was a short walk out to be on top of the Sky Bridge natural bridge giving you some amazing, wide spanning views. It was later in the day, maybe noon or 1pm and it was way too hot to be out there exposed at there at the top of this bridge with no shade in sight. I was personally way overheating and the girls were whining that they'd never survive in the heat but we knew we wanted to see more, so I quickly added this full hike (about 1 mile) to our list for a future day.
(This photo and the two that follow are the Natural Bridge at the state park. Its beautiful and worth the effort to get there! If you aren't interested in hiking and want to experience it in a different way they also run a ski lift to the top. The rest of the family did that the day we left, so I don't have photos of it, but it sounds like that's a fun thing to do too.)
We came back the next morning with a group of anyone who wanted to hike and we hiked the full Sky Bridge hike worth it! Along with two smaller hikes to outlooks called Chimney Top Rock and Princess Arch. This three stop adventure is totally doable in a few hours (mostly driving between locations) and easy for little ones and the older family members to hike.
This is the view of the river from our campsite - site #33 for reference for a future trip! We had almost every campsite on this side of the river. A line of 6 sites all family. We had a random family or two smack dab in the middle of us (when Liz and Bobby left on Wednesday) and then 2 more non-family member sites at the end and they could all tell that they were in the middle of something. LOL! We had someone walk past one night and say "are you guys like a family reunion or something". HAHAH!
This area of the world is so beautiful and unique - it was well worth the 6 nights we spent just exploring it. I am pretty sure this is the longest we've ever camped in one single spot. We are usually driven to see more, explore more and beep bop onto the next thing spending only a few nights in one single spot. When we visited in 2019 we said we'd come back and take advantage of the trails and backpacking opportunities but it was FAR TOO HOT for that. So, shucks...I think we'll have to come back again.
It's a big rock climbing/backpacking area and the restaurants and businesses definitely cater to to that audience. There's a pizza place there called Miguel's and they have a huge grass field for tent campers (I don't even think they charge to stay there) and they have pay showers for people to use. Another restaurant/beer garden is called Hops (we found it in 2019 when it was called Hop Fork and it's still there) that is made out of shipping containers. They have a huge beer garden area and tent camping there as well. I think the business offer free camping (no cost to them to mow the grass and let climbers tent camp) and it drives business to their restaurant.
When we visited in 2019 the area was a hidden gem. It's rural and small town and any tourism revenue was from the back packers and climbers (not usually known for having tons of dough to drop) but I think this area is poised for a boom - you could tell there are a handful of developers there putting up big giant beautiful houses and there are shopping developments popping up. It's not a far drive (3 hours further south) to Pigeon Forge and that area has exploded as a tourist destination in the last 5 or so years. Its a little too far for us, but if we lived closer, I'd certainly consider plopping down some money for land and developing here. If you are on the lookout for an investment opportunity, you really should check it out because I bet in 10 years it'll be stocked full of $1M home to rent out.
There was the perfect amount of shopping available too. Just enough to let the girls find a few things they wanted to buy and not too much that Ryan and I were ready to call it quits. We got ice cream nearly every single day (100 degree temps make it easy to say yes to ice cream!) and if we had one more day there we would have ended up doing a rock mining thing with the kids at one of the shops.
And I can't end this post without bragging about the river! Abby fished almost every single day - somehow she's a really lucky fisher-woman. She is the first one to toss a line in (which of course helps with her luck!) but she is always catching something. We saw trout and bluegill come out of the river and found out that they stock it once a month with trout.
We started nearly every morning with a hike and by lunch time we were almost always sitting in the river. I think Ryan had a chair in the river within 3 hours of having camp set up the first day but we really achieved a new level of redneck (but also campground jealously) when he plopped the pop up tent in the river too. That being said we all huddled under it move our chairs as close as possible to fit everyone in the shade.
The water level changed quite a bit during our time there. You'll remember that I said it rained 6 inches on the first part of our trip and that meant that the river was "up" - and by that I mean it went from ankle deep to maybe mid-shin depth. Perfect for kids to wade in and to not have to worry too much about the littlest ones drowning. We had Liam and Mason with us for a few days and then Haze (the newest youngest cousin in the Keen family) who was maybe 18 months to 24 months old. With water wings on the parents felt fine letting the kids play and explore.
(Jeff's dog Apollo - and also Clementine's brother. Jeff had all three dogs with him. Add in our two, Copper and Penny and we were a sight to see on hikes. 5 dogs is a lot of dogs. Good thing our group was usually 10+ people making 5 dogs seem less extreme. LOL!)
I've been asked a handful of times what was my favorite part of the entire trip and it's right there. That photo, the whole family just sitting around chatting for hours and hours and hours...that was my favorite part. It was SO FUN to have 6 campsites all in a row and I felt like I got to spend so much time with Susie and Mitch - the bought their first camper earlier this year and this was their first trip with it. We sat up one night til 10pm with our feet in the river just chatting. It was dark and finally cooled off (and by that I mean it was only 85 degrees - at TEN PM!)....and those are the memories I hold dear.
All in all we had 7 campsites, one family in a cabin and a total of 3 houses rented all within 15 miles of each other. These reunions are always worth it. And you know what? It's already time to start talking about the location for 2029. EK! Can you believe I just typed that? Abby will be entering her senior year and Hazel will have just graduated 8th grade. It feels like a world away, and also so close. Man, getting older is a strange experience!
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