with my family and in the heart of a national forest, yes please! Karson and I were chatting a few weeks ago, and she was telling me about some vacation time she'd accrued for March. Ironically, Matt had those days off as well. Miles and I submitted some vacation time, and viola a trip was born! We'd considered going to a cabin in the mountains and love Pigeon Forge. We wanted to include Isaac and quickly realized Red River Gorge is super close to Richmond. None of us had ever been, so plans were put in motion!
As I talked with friends and co-workers, I discovered more and more about this Kentucky gem! We got lots of tips and suggestions. After doing some google searches, I found a cabin for us in Lee County called The Lazy Maple. What I liked most about this cabin was that it wasn't tricky to get to. Most of what I'd seen cabin-wise mentioned needing a 4-wheel drive vehicle to get there. I knew Isaac would be joining us and didn't want him to off-road in his Honda.
The cabin we chose was a new build and perfect in every way but one - no closets or functional furniture to store clothes in. That is my only complaint. Other than that, it was ideal - complete with hot tub, fire pit and GALAGA/Pac Man arcade game. Matt was determined to be the high score on the machine and topped out at 280,000.
I packed lots of groceries because I wasn't sure how close we'd be to a store. In fact, we stopped an hour away in London, KY and grabbed a few more things before arriving that evening. I wanted to have some breakfast and lunch/snack options for hikes. I'd taken two small coolers too. Thursday night, we got the firepit going and roasted hotdogs, ate chips, and mac-n-cheese. Afterwards, we made s'mores for dessert.
Isaac and his girlfriend McKayla joined us Friday morning. I made pancakes, scrambled eggs served with fruit. Afterwards, I packed up sandwiches, chips, and drinks for our trip to Natural Bridge State Park. My friend suggested riding the Skylift either UP or DOWN or BOTH. She said it's a pretty tricky climb either way so doing one or the other is best. Boy, am I glad she told us that. Hiking two miles is nothing like walking two miles. We decided to Skylift up to the top and hike down. The last part of the lift was feet tingling, but we survived.
Awesome views from the top but still a bit scary. There was another trail called Balanced Rock that looked amazing, but the trail was closed. The lady in the gift shop told us to get back to the parking lot, we needed to look for Rock Garden Trail. This hike was considered moderate, and I am glad we started at the top and worked our way back down vs. the other way around.
The nice part about hiking down is that you know exactly how long it's going to take and where you are headed. I'm not sure I would've felt that way had we hiked up.
When we got back to the parking lot, we drove over to a shelter and ate lunch. The kids thought a mini golf course was at the shelter because it advertised a snack bar and mini golf. Once we got there, all of it was closed, not sure if it's seasonal or closed all together.
The kids did, however, remember that we passed a mini golf course on the way to Natural Bridge.
GAME ON at Thrillsville!
This course wasn't easy, and I made it extra difficult coming in last. Isaac got the big WIN of the day and was pumped.
We went back to the cabin to relax for a little. Early on we'd decided
we were going to Miguel's Pizza for dinner. It was highly recommended. I brought charcuterie stuff to snack on and tie us over for a little while. March madness brings loads of basketball games, and UK was playing that night. We wanted to make sure we had enough time to get our pizza and head back to the cabin for the game.
Miguel's is the type of place that you walk up, place your order, then they bring it to your table.
It's neat and the entire field behind the restaurant is covered in tents. Many of the folks staying there and patronizing the pizza place are rock climbers in the area.
The pizza was pizza, nothing spectacular in my opinion but good. I liked the atmosphere more, and we got a lot of different selections.
There were plenty of activities while you wait like basketball, foosball, pull up bars, balance beams....
Karson and Miles building up their rock climbing muscles!
A few weeks ago, I went to a 50th birthday party for a friend and was introduced to Riley's Bakery's Caramel Sundae Cake. I'm shocked I've never had it. I grew up on Riley's cakes and even had one at my wedding. The sundae cake is FANTASTIC, and you can get a small one which was the right size for the trip.
I couldn't have asked for a more perfect way to spend my birthday than with all three kids and Matt. Moments like these are very rare. Super thankful! Plus, the weather was superb!
We ate sweets, watched basketball, the kids hot-tubbed it, played some Skip BO and Yahtzee, and crashed after a long day!
Let's get something straight...hikers we are not. I like to think I am in relatively decent shape, but after the long trek down Rock Garden Trail the day before, I wanted to do cool, short hikes (like .25-.50) Saturday. After Isaac and McKayla took off to Richmond, and the other two sleepy heads got out of bed, we packed up more sandwiches and headed towards Whittleton Campground. I wanted to check out
Henson's Arch Trail.
I have to admit, while easy, I think the pictures made it look a lot bigger than it was but still worth it and SHORT.
Because we were at Whittleton, Matt convinced us three to try out
Whittleton Arch Trailhead. Nope, not simple at all - a 2.5 mile haul! We committed but regretted it multiple times, especially since we didn't have hiking boots, sloshed through some muddy, slippery gunk every so often, and it felt like it would NEVER end.
FINALLY MADE IT to the end Geez!
We were hungry once we got back to the car. My feet were sore and shoes muddy. Karson had mentioned wanting to stop by a gift shop and look at souvenirs. We'd done some of that at Natural Bridge, but there was another shop not far from Whittleton.
There were some specific trails I wanted to do before calling it a day along with an ice cream shop called
The Brick that I wanted to check out. This would hopefully give us the BOOST we needed to do a few more quick hikes. Karson and Matt got coffee ice cream and Miles opted for churro ice cream. I went for straight up iced coffee!
We finished up our hiking at Princess Arch and Chimney Top trails which are in the same area. Both were short and totally worth it with spectacular views!
We knew the ride back to the cabin would take some time, and since we had no dinner plans, our vote was to carry out from
Red River Rockhouse which was a recommended burger joint. Food options are pretty limited in the area. I wish I had great things to say about RRR, but I don't. Our family collectively did not like it - food was tasteless and bland and fries were awful. They didn't include condiments for the burgers but fortunately, we had mustard and mayo at the cabin. Ketchup would've been nice.
Worn out again, we played some cards and went to bed. I still have a few trails I'd like to try out in the future and have heard awesome things about Gorge Underground. I hope to get back to RRG again soon!
Sunday was my actual birthday, and we had to be out of the cabin by 10AM. After getting the car loaded, we took off, stopping once at Cracker Barrell for some breakfast before getting home around 2PM.
After doing some laundry, I took a little nap before heading over to my parents to celebrate.
Dad and I are a double March birthday combo! It was truly a perfect weekend!
Karson got to take a ride in Pop's new ride - a 1934 Plymouth Business Coupe with LT-1 405HP corvette engine.
CHEERS TO 48!
