I already shared about our hikes and the campground, but this post is dedicated to the activities we did on the family reunion. Up first, ATVing. The girls had so much fun doing this when we were in the Black Hills, they say it's one of their favorite vacation memories and Ryan LOVES an opportunity to drive something around in the mud, so we looked into it at Red River. Originally we thought we could do it wih Liz and Bobby, but the kids were too short for the rental place's rules. It's a bummer because the boys and Bobby would have loved it.
Somewhat last minute we were able to convince a big group to go. It's not an inexpensive activity. I think we spent around $400 per vehicle, but in contrast we looked at a ziplining activity that was $100 per person for 2 hours and that seemed crazy. Our group included, Mom and Dad, Joey and Andy, Jeff and the kids, and Uncle Rusty in his own vehicle. I think Mom and Dad were skeptical but Dad said afterwards it was one of the most fun things he'd ever done. (I'm glad they were willing to try!).
The tour was guided which originally we weren't as excited about, but in the end it was way better that way. Ryan said they took us places and had him driving in ways that he'd have never done if someone wasn't leading us there. Ryan and the girls had the time of their lives. By the end, I personally was ready for it to be over - lol! For the first half of the trip Ryan was a reasonable driver. Sure, we splashed through some mud and got wet and muddy, but when we stopped for the break Joey and Andy challenged him to be more extreme, more water, more mud, more speed....which I knew as it came out of their mouths he'd never be able to resist and I was going to be sad about. LOL! I did pretty well having a good attitude for most of the trip, but by the time we were 3 hours in, I was went, muddy and ready to be out of the vehicle. The kids and Ryan though? I think they would have stayed out for 3 more hours if they had the chance.
(Blurry because of the mud.....but I think you can tell I was over it at this point).
The second organized big group activity we did was a cave kayak that Dad found in researching things to do in the area. I have to say, we've kayaked plenty and this was a very unique, interesting, different experience.
Back 50+ years ago this location was a limestone mine and while they were mining the area they accidently hit an aquafer and flooded the mine site. As you can imagine, the mine was no longer operational and it was condemned. Fast forward to about 20 years ago and someone had a vision and they created an activity I've never seen anywhere else. They bought out the mine site and turned it into a cave kayak tour. They invested in clear kayaks and added neon light bars into the kayaks so you could have light to see without needing to put electricity in the whole cave system.
The tour company was amazing to work with. They originally had time slots with maybe 15 spots available. We'll our group filled the first time slot up quickly and then we started filling up the slot 2 hours later. At some point the company realized, "hey, there are a lot of people here with the last name Ritterbusch, I wonder if they are all together" and they called Dad. We were able to combine the two tours into one and do this event as a large group. The we were only missing 5 people. 3 didn't feel comfortable kayaking so they went on a boat version of the same trip, and then Jayden stayed back with Haze (the baby) because he was too young to do either option.
The three guides we had with our group were great too! They were patient and able to keep our huge floating mass of humans together and organized. Dad even upgraded the package to include access to the photos they took during the tour which was amazing because they really didn't allow you to take phones in (obvious reason...if you drop it in the water it's gone forever). They also didn't allow shoes because they could scratch the clear kayaks. But, maybe the best part of the whole tour that day was that the caves are a consistent 55ish degrees. You'll remember that I said the heat index was 100+ for the entire week. Having 2 hours in a 55 degree cave was a real treat! Had we known, we might have opted for an afternoon time slot to really get out of the heat during the worst part of the day...but hindsight is 20/20 and who would have guessed we'd be in a heat dome?!?
I think the whole group liked this activity and truly I think it's one of a kind. At one point I thought it was going to be "lit" because of bioluminescence - a tour we've seen before on the ocean - but this was of course not that.
We booked both of these tours through the same company, or maybe sister companies. The UTV tour was through Out The Top Adventures and the kayaking was through Red Rive Gorge Underground. If you are planning a trip, ask about bundle discounts because we were able to save a little money that way.
Oh! One quick funny story about Kayden on the kayak tour. A few times during the tour they stop the group, bunch everyone up and tell a story about the caves or the fish etc. Then when you try to restart paddling we're all bunched up and some people are facing the wrong way and some are at the periphery etc. At one point like that we started paddling again and Kayden thought she'd swing wide, turn around and rejoin the group. Well, just about everyone in the group started hollering "Kayden, wrong way...not that way...Kayden, Kayden...Kayden we're going this way". It was hilarious, but it made her anxious because everyone was looking at her and causing a scene so she started paddling faster (in the wrong direction) which only made more people call out. Andy was laughing so hard because she was so flustered that she almost tipped her kayak. That wouldn't have been ideal since the water was so cold. We'd gotten a whole speech about hypothermia and the importance of staying in your vessel etc. It was pretty funny though and definitely a story I want to remember for retelling in the future :)
The tour guides told us a few years back they decided to see if they could stock the caves with fish. They started with a small group of trout just to see how they did and apparently they thrived down there. With no predators and a never ending food source (the company feeds the fish food) the fish are doing great and they've added more. If nothing it adds to the visual excitement of the tour and gives you something else to try and spot as you paddle.
Red River Gorge was the perfect central location for this large family and I'm so glad we had a chance to go back and explore it some more. I think it's safe to say that we'll return again at some point!
No comments:
Post a Comment