Cloudsplitter

Dayhike 2/9/18
Sheltowee Connector Trailhead
Red River Gorge

I decided that today would be a good day to check out Cloudsplitter. I've been hiking in the gorge to long to never have even hiked past it, not to mention climbed it. So I started at the Sheltowee Connector trailhead and headed north to the swinging bridge and the Sheltowee Trace.

On my way to Cloudsplitter, I checked out the Arch Nursery trail from Hinterlands. It is a short trail with a neat rock shelter that looks like it could end up as an arch in a couple more million years.

The rock shelter is really big, this is a pano from 7 individual photos

There was a lot of water pouring out of a large crack, it was hard to capture the water, but I did get the rainbow

Then up the trail, towards Cloudsplitter. I skipped the Nowhere trail with the idea I would catch it on the way back to the car. I found the trial to Cloudsplitter and made the scramble up to the real climb and I chickened out. The 20 foot smooth sandstone did not look like a good idea, especially since I was alone. I had lunch below Cloudsplitter and then followed the user trail up towards the ridge. It ended up circling around and connecting with the Nowhere trail 

I enjoyed the view of Cloudsplitter from the Nowhere trail

When I got back to the Sheltowee Trace, I still had a couple hours to hike, so I repeated my steps back towards Cloudsplitter and then continued past to check out Adena Arch and the view. 

Huge rockface, this is a vertical pano stitched from 5 photos

Looks like sea shells

Carrying out other people's beer cans is bad enough, but spray paint cans??? Come on!!!

In the end, I hiked about 10 miles and saw some new parts of the gorge. But, I am a little disappointed that I was not able to do the Cloudsplitter climb. I think it falls in the better safe than sorry category, maybe I'll be able to complete the climb some day.