We took a nice long trip to Kentucky in 2008, we stopped at the Newport Aquarium, then headed to hubby’s family where Thaddeus stayed the weekend, and we went camping and hiking at Natural Bridge. This wasn’t the first time that we hiked here, however, this was probably one of the best trips.
It was a great weekend, and we had lots of fun.
Hiking and Camping at Natural Bridge in Kentucky
There are a couple of ways to get to the top of the mountain, where the actual Natural Bridge is. One way is to climb. The other is taking the cable cars. While I don’t like taking them, they are a quicker way up.
It really is a long way up there. You can’t tell from the pictures, at least not really well. If you want to spend more time hiking, then, by all means, hike the mountain!
There are plenty of sights to see, especially the awesome limestone that forms the mountain as well as the bridge.
While on the bridge, you can look across and see another cliff area. If you look closely, you can see the people standing on the top looking out at the valley.
You might even run across a fork in a tree!
My favorite is finding the balancing rocks throughout the area. Just imagine, this was once a completely solid formation and now from the waters, it forms something awesome to look at.
Yeah, I’m not one for following the rules!
But I do love to climb into areas and see what is around the corner or up higher.
Beautiful pathway to walk through and see some wonderful sights!
There are even some really tight spaces to get through!
Then there are these stairs! It’s nice when you get a set of stairs to take you to parts of the forest that you normally wouldn’t have been able to get through because the path is too steep.
The beautiful view of the valley and forest is your prize!
Victory?!
If you like to go hiking and see nature at its best, then taking a trip to Kentucky and visiting the Natural Bridge State Resort Park is the way to go. You not only get to see the beauty of Kentucky, but you get to hike across a bridge that was naturally created by a river that used to run through the area.
Natural Bridge State Resort Park
“… is a Kentucky state park located in Powell and Wolfe Counties along the Middle Fork of the Red River, adjacent to the Red River Gorge Geologic Area and surrounded by the Daniel Boone National Forest. Its namesake natural bridge is the centerpiece of the park. The natural sandstone arch spans 78 ft (24 m) and is 65 ft (20 m) high. The natural process of weathering formed the arch over millions of years. The park is approximately 2,300 acres (9 km2) of which approximately 1,200 acres (5 km2) is dedicated by the Kentucky State Nature Preserves Commission as a nature preserve. In 1981 this land was dedicated into the nature preserves system to protect the ecological communities and rare species habitat. The first federally endangered Virginia big eared bats, Corynorhinus townsendii virginianus, recorded in Kentucky were found at Natural Bridge State Resort Park in the 1950s.”
You can read more about the state park on Wikipedia.
