Category Archives: Hiking

Adventures, Desert, Hiking, Nevada, Vacations

Red Rock Canyon

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I love Nevada. I always say I want to go back to Las Vegas, but, to be honest, I don’t actually care about the strip. I mean, I’ve been there, I’ve seen it. But, I’m not a drinker, and I don’t like crowds of people. I’m a very responsible gambler, so, once my money is gone (money I’ve purposely set aside, knowing I can afford to lose it all), I’m out.

This trip I really wanted to go on the observation wheel. We went at nights, which is pretty cool. You can see all the light, and even the fountains at the Bellagio from 550 ft up. The High Roller is huge. Each car is about the size of a small room. There were 6 of us, I believe, in the car. And we could walk around and move around, and none of us had to get anywhere near each other if we didn’t want to. They can actually hold about 40 people. The ride itself is about 30 minutes. I definitely recommend it.

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We had tickets to the Red Bull Air Race at the Las Vegas Motor Speed Way. The show didn’t really start until after lunch, so that left us with a morning to kill…plus, Vegas is 3 hours behind the time at home, so I was up and ready to go at 4am. Much to Brad’s dismay.

A friend recommended Red Rock Canyon. It’s a short drive off the strip…maybe 20 minutes. We had rented a Camaro and didn’t mind the drive.

IMG_9274This place is beautiful. It is $7 per car to get in. The road is a one way loop.

It isn’t crowded, but the road is narrow. And, there are a lot of people on bikes or motorized scooter type things that are going much slower.

There are 19 trails you can hike. There is also some serious rock climbing going on in some places. That was fun to watch. The trails average about 2 miles each. Though, there are some that are just under a mile, and one that is 6 miles long.

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I literally wore out my gym shoes the day we were here.

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If you want to hike in the desert, you need to watch out for snakes, wear plenty of sunscreen, (and a hat, I like hats), and make sure you bring plenty of water. It is hot and there are very few places you can find shade.

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There is a campground located in the conservation area. However, it is closed June, July and August.

You can bike the scenic drive (almost 15 miles long, and one way), but not on the trails.

There are two off-roading trails if you have a 4×4.

 

Adventures, Hiking, Kentucky, Parks, State Park

A Walk in the Park in Kentucky, Part 2

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Day 2 of our trip to Red River Gorge was a bit less hiking, but even more to see. When we turned into the park, on day 1, we went right. On day 2 we went left.

The first thing we found was a tunnel in the mountain. Nada Tunnel. IMG_8929

The tunnel used to be a railroad tunnel. It is now a 900 foot, single lane, passage through the mountain for cars.

We came out the other side, to this.

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Pretty much, through out this whole portion of the drive, the road looks like this. It is beautiful, though I wish we had been able to go a couple weeks later to watch those leaves change!

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One thing I found interesting here was that we crossed a lot of bridges. Everyone was very different.

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That last bridge is called the Sky Bridge. It is a natural stone arch, that crosses over another path. The hike is easy, though you will want to be careful walking across the bridge, as you can see, there are no walls. And, the edges are worn down, so the very center is high and flat, and the close you get to the edge, the more sloped the rock becomes.

I found this little guy on our hike.

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I think this may be one of my best pictures!

On the route to the Sky Bridge hike, you will also find a sign that read’s “Devil’s Canyon Overlook” This is the view.

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Now, if you are anything like me, you will decide that standing by the fence is not good enough, and you will walk down a little side path, with no fence.  And the side path will lead you down here.

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Can you see, under that one pine tree, the bright green moss on the edge of the rock? If you are anything like me, you will decide you MUST sit there to get a picture. If you are married to anyone like my husband, you will keep inching over there while he shouts “Get back here!” I made it, and sat on that ledge, and enjoyed every second of my view, while my husband had a panic attack. (Ok, not really, but he was not happy with me and was very tempted to pick me up and move me back about 4 feet.) I took this picture though.

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Those are huge, fully grown trees under my feet.

We eventually had to make our way out of the park. Remember how I said it stormed on day one? This was how a good portion of the roads looked on day 2.

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Next, I’m working on the basic info post. Soon I will have posts from the Las Vegas trip we just got back from as well.

Adventures, Hiking, Kentucky, Parks, State Park, Travel

A Walk in the Park in Kentucky

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On a rare week off for my husband, we decided to go on a road trip to Kentucky for some hiking. The trip was off to a rough start. We wanted to go Wed-Thurs. But, on Sunday night we got word my uncle had passed away and we had no details about arrangements. Not wanting to miss his funeral, we bumped the trip up. It poured the whole drive. All 6 hours of it.

And, I had/have a pinched nerve in my back, so my leg is killing me. And, I’m all wobbly. We kept on anyway. I thought, how hard could this be? Thinking of Indiana’s vast corn fields, not of Kentucky’s mountain ranges.

We wanted to go to Red River Gorge, deep in Daniel Boone National Forest.  The website for the forest proudly boasts that this park “embraces some of the most rugged terrain west of the Appalachian Mountains.” It would seem I should have done some more research before we left.

We got to the park, it had actually stopped raining at that point. Which was nice, especially since the “Dangerous Cliffs” sign above was the first sign that greeted us.

We started down the Gray’s Arch trail. The sign said it was just a .25 mile hike. Not a problem. So, we began. Above Gray’s Arch the sign read “Rough Trail” we thought it was a warning about trail conditions. We were mistaken. The arch trail was another trail, off the main trail. The main trail was perfectly named, Rough Trail. It was 7 miles long. A fact we did not know until we finished hiking.

The scenery is stunning, the trees turning all different colors. The temperature was perfect, mid-sixties. There are rock formations almost everywhere you look. My kids enjoyed hunting for mushrooms. We know nothing about mushrooms though, so we just looked and took pictures.

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It was definitely a rough trail, but not undoable. All 4 of us did fine. We were about 1.5 miles in when we found the first of several rock shelters.

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It was around this point we also found Gray’s Arch.

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This photo was taken with a filter. I took several pictures, and this is the one that shows the arch best. I just wanted to get to the arch, so we continued. It didn’t seem that far away.

We continued down the trail, and found another rock shelter, and a cave. IMG_8887

This cave is at the top of three very long, very narrow, and very steep sets of stairs. We finally reached the bottom of the stairs, and the trail forked. It seemed if we went right it would head to the arch. Left would head down another trail. As we discussed it, the sky broke open and the rain began. We rushed to the left, to get under cover of yet another rock shelter.  We thought we’d wait it out for a bit. After 30 minutes, it was still pouring, and a bad storm was heading in. It was getting late, we certainly didn’t want to hike in the dark.  And we’d already walked a mile into our “short hike” to the arch. It was another .50 mile to the arch. So, we decided to turn around and go back. The hike back was all uphill.

We realized we had made the right choice when we got up the stairs and saw the path.

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And this was one of the best parts of the path. Wide, and no cliff immediately to one side. We vary carefully headed back to the car.

And that was the end of day one.

More to come soon, but I’m heading out of town again in the morning and I won’t be taking the computer. The next post will probably be next week.