I have returned from the land of little signal! Been meaning to spend some time in Red River Gorge and finally got down there for a bit of a look-see. They're talking about building a fancy resort down there and that just seems like a bad idea.
Before that happens I'd like to get to know and document the place properly. I grew up not far from The Gorge but we always stayed the hell away from there. Too many flatlanders running around getting drunk and doing things they ought not in terrain that's anything but forgiving. Now they want to turn it into another Gatlinburg.
Not if I can help it. Many years back Congress in its wisdom approved a bill to build a dam that would flood Red River Gorge. Some folks thought that might be a bad idea and managed to raise enough of a ruckus that it never came to pass. This time around there's some folks trying to do the same thing.
I'm hoping to help them out with some photos and hopefully put them to use some other ways as well. These aren't those photos though, I went down there this week to get a feel for the lay of the land so I could plan how to tackle that properly. Still brought my Nikon along.
My plan was as hazy as the air when I got down there Wednesday evening. I'd had a vague notion of camping at Natural Bridge State Park just outside the gorge until I could get the backcountry pass I needed Thursday morning. Unfortunately when I got there it was slightly on fire. Tried Miguel's next, an improbably famous pizza place that always has people camping behind it. Got turned away, told it was for "Climbers Only." Cliquey bastards, go colonize someone else's rocks.
Was about to give up and go with plan b (camping at my old homeplace 45 minutes away) when I found an old farm turned campground a few miles further up the road. It was nothing to look at but there were plenty of whippoorwills singing and a great view of the night sky so it evened out. The next morning things got back on track, broke camp and drove through the Nada Tunnel into Red River Gorge. Once I had a backcountry pass in my possession I headed for Sky Bridge, pictured in the photo above and the lead photo.
The top of Sky Bridge doesn't look as impressive but the views from it were. With the pass you can camp just about anywhere in parts of the park, as long as you keep 100 yards from trails and roads. My plan was to see what I could cover easily in a day and then make camp, get a baseline for future expeditions.
They ain't kidding. There's a joke in that article that sums the whole thing up:
How do you tell when it's autumn in the gorge?
When the buckeyes start to fall.
For those of you not from around here, buckeyes are people from the state of Ohio. For reasons that are clear as mud they seem to have a fondness for doing the gravity challenge in the gorge.
These photos are from Whistling Arch, where someone fell and died in 2018.
It wasn't making a sound while I was there but supposedly if the wind hits it just right... These sorts of arches are in their early stages, they form from differential erosion of various kinds of rock and gradually grow bigger until the arch ultimately collapses.
This one is known as Angel Windows. You'll get your angel wings if you're not careful. These are all from the eastern side of the park, there's over a hundred arches in Red River Gorge, I just managed to get to a few that were just a short hike from road.
Picked a good time to go, all the wildflowers seemed to be in bloom. These dwarf irises were all over the place, seemed to be able to grow just about anywhere.
It gets dark a little quicker down in the gorge so you want to make camp before the sun gets too low. 'Camp anywhere' sounds simple enough, finding a flat spot big enough to pitch a tent is the hard part. Around here most of the flat land is 'bottomland,' low ground. Looks like a great place to camp but if it comes a storm in the middle of the night you're going to have a flash flood for an alarm clock.
Had to get at least one more arch in before I had to make tracks back to Louisville. This one is called Hidden Arch and I could see why, the path went up and down and left and right more than an old Nintendo code. Going to try and make it back in a couple weeks and do some more shooting. Until then stay safe out there y'all.
