Creek hiking to a waterfall

Red River Gorge
1/12/16

Overcast day in the middle of the week, I only saw two cars parked at different trailheads and passed a group of guys that looked like they were going to ford Station Camp Creek and go hunting or camping. Basically, I had the gorge to myself for a couple of hours.

I checked out the view from Sky Bridge and followed a user path along the cliff face to an great view. It was very windy so I did not linger long.

Then off to find a creek and a waterfall.

Three views of a popular waterfall in the gorge.

Abstract rock art

This tree was covered in fungus from the ground up to about 30 feet, basically the whole tree. I can't decide which version I like best.

Same tree, different angle

 Fallen tree and fungus

Auxier Ridge

11/27/16
Martin's Fork Trailhead - Red River Gorge

My in-laws were in town to play with the kids and the weather looked perfect, so I headed to the gorge for the day. The Tunnel Ridge Road is still closed after a couple wildfires, but only up to the Nada Tunnel.

I saw a post on kywilderness (http://www.kywilderness.com/forum/index.php?topic=7369.msg48655) about the "back door" from Martin's Fork. I had looked at the map on occasion and every time I looked across the valley from the other side, I thought that it looked like a bushwack along the ridge that parallels the Nada Tunnel Road would be possible. This trip report confirmed it.

I got to the Martin's Fork Trailhead around 10:30 on the Sunday after Thanksgiving. My car thermometer said 40 degrees. The sun was shining and the only potential issue was I was fighting a head cold which is arguably better than fighting a hangover

I followed the obvious user trail out of the parking lot and up towards the ridge. After one false start, I reached the top of the ridge after a bit of scrambling. Once at the top of the ridge, there was a somewhat obvious trail that had been flagged. This made the trail mostly easy to follow, there were probably 5 or 6 different color tapes, most very faded, but still noticeable/followable. 

I hit TRR around 12:30 and headed towards Auxier Trailhead. It was very weird coming around the corner and not seeing any cars at all. It turns out that I really like the gorge without any people in it. I still ended up carrying garbage (I think mylar balloons should be illegal).

I headed out towards Courthouse Rock with the idea that I would loop back on Courthouse Rock trail. I ended up enjoying the views for so long that when I got to Courthouse Rock, I turned around and headed back. I had an easy trip back until after I had climbed down from the ridge and lost the trail, a little bit of bushwacking and I was back at the trailhead around 4, the thermometer said 48 degrees.

I liked this old burned tree on the ridge

Double Arch from across the valley

An amazing day, it felt like I had the whole gorge to my self.

Tarr Ridge

9/29/16
Tarr Ridge Trailhead
Red River Gorge

I decided to take a personal day and head to the gorge. I had heard good things about Tarr Ridge and it sounded like a good way to fill a couple hours and maybe scout for a place to hang a hammock.

I got to the trailhead and there were two cars there, one with an overnight hang tag and one without. I was a little disappointed since I had hoped the weekday and the weather would give me the ridge to myself.

It was grey and overcast and damp, but the views were fantastic. The mist/clouds made for atmosphere, but made it some difficult to get good photos.

Spent some time watch the mist and listening to the birds. A cup of coffee at this point would have been nice.

And then I headed towards the Tarr Ridge Extravaganza trail and a couple more overlooks. I ran into the owners of the cars. The guy had camped out and his girlfriend had met him that morning. They were nice to talk to and I appreciated that they were picking up other people's trash like I tend to do. We chatted for a couple minutes and then I headed towards the end of the ridge, stopping at another overlook along the way.

I got to the end and followed the long rock wall at the end of the Tarr Ridge Extravaganza trail until it cliffed out ...

...  and then climbed up the rock with the help of a rope that someone left and finished the hike out to the end of the ridge. The view is pretty amazing, I just wished the clouds had broke and let in a little more sun. It was a great place to just sit and look.

I'm going to try to make it back when the leaves are changing.

On top of the stairs

9/2 - 9/3/16
Bison Way Trailhead - Red River Gorge
2016 bag nights: 18

The weather forecast for Labor Day weekend was looking fantastic (clear with highs in the low 80s). I mentioned to my wife that instead of staying home this weekend and hosting a pool party, I should be taking the kids camping. She said I should go do a one night trip by myself. No problem.

I have been wanting to try a little more astrophotography and the clear night that was forecast sounded good, so it was just a matter of figuring out where to go that would give me a clear view of the sky. I decided that the Indian Staircase area in the gorge would work, my only fear was there would be a ton of people given a weekend with nice weather. The gorge was packed, but it seemed to be mostly dayhikers when I got to the trailhead after leaving work early on Friday.

Since I was only going a couple of miles, I carried Subway for dinner along with a couple beers (Two Hearted) and my chair (Alite Monarch). It was awesome sitting at the top of the staircase waiting for the sunset.

A great place to hang for the night. I woke up in the middle of the night and saw a shooting star from the comfort of the hammock.

It was a nice sunset, but I was hoping for a little bit more color in the clouds. In the end, I was glad the clouds weren't very spectacular since the stars probably would have sucked.

The stars were great, but I did not get many good photos because the trees were in the way. Being at the edge of the cliff line meant that I did not have a lot of room to move for a better angle. In the photo below, the light on the horizon is light pollution from (I think) Slade. I was really surprised at the amount of light coming from the Mountain Parkway area. I was also surprised how many airplanes fly over the gorge. A lot of the photos ended up with a light streak through the middle from an airplane flying through the 20 second exposure.

Pretty sure I will never camp at the top of the staircase again. Three guys came up about 11pm (I was still watching the stars) and then a couple more guys appeared around 1130 after I was in the hammock. Personally, I can't imagine wandering around a cliffline in the middle of the night, but I guess this type of behavior is why people die in the gorge every year. 

Woke up as the sky was getting lighter, decided if I was going to get any sunrise photos I needed to drag myself out of the hammock. There were basically no clouds, so it was not an "impressive" sunrise, but the mist in the valley was pretty and it was a nice view for breakfast.

A nice morning walk up on the ridge

Someone had a little too much time on their hands :)

Lots of flowers around a clearing up on the ridge

A nice view of the Indian Staircase ridge from across the valley

A couple more random photos

All in all, a pretty good way to spend approximately 20 hours. I need to do more trips like this in the future.

Creation Falls

Rock Bridge and Creation Falls
6/27/16

Took the kids on an "adventure", had a great time, nobody cried :)

Grays Arch Trailhead

Thursday 5/19/16

Parked at the Greys Arch Trailhead, there were only a couple of cars in the lot, much different than the weekend before. I headed off towards Greys Arch and took a couple of the side paths before stopping for a lunch with a view.



Then Greys Arch

Then a beer and a view on Hanson's Point.

Lots of wildflowers along the trails.

Still love the Mountain Laurel

Looks like a coreopsis of some sort

might be "annual fleabane" Erigeron annuus

Yellow Stargrass?

Blackberries

Tree root and sandstone

"spikenard" Aralia racemosa ?

coreopsis?

Blueberries?

Only saw two groups of people. The first group of 6 or so college looking kids made lots of noise before I was 10 minutes down the trail, I just stayed off the trail and they never saw me. The second group was 5 guys from Cleveland that were down backpacking for a couple of days. They had a little bit of info about the area from a friend and were trying to get to the river to swim/jump off of a rock they had heard about. I showed them where they were on my phone and described the trail up to the swinging bridge and jump rock, hopefully they had a good time.

All in all, a great 5 hours in the gorge.