Arches and more! Kentucky

We spent a busy week in Grayson, Kentucky!  Lots of beautiful state parks here and the Red River Gorge Geological Area.

Grayson State Park was just up the road from our campground so we started there on the Lick Falls Overlook Trail:

a large tree fell here and took out about 6 more, you can see the root balls all in line

 Leaving the trail we passed by a golf course and saw several geese families.  Veery cool because they all had young of various ages!

3 geese families with juveniles at different stages of growth,  fun to see!

Primitive trail at Grayson Lake

We found out by talking
to people that this area
is known locally as
Arches of the East.  Located
in the Red River Gorge
Geological Area, there are
many scenic arches
here!

So we certainly had
to see how they compare
to Arches NP out west!

had to pass through Nada Tunnel, originally built for a small gauge rail road, it measures 13'x 12'x 900'! It was a bit scary!

Nada Tunnel entrance

No disappointments in these arches and natural bridges!  Such beautiful settings!  The arches are spread out over several miles of forest and we knew we were going to have to see them in the rain so we looked over a map and decided to, hopefully, see 3 of 10+ arches listed for the Red River Gorge area.

It was a wet, slippery, muddy but very satisfying day!  Someday we will have to return to visit the other arches!

The first hike was to a beautiful arch that has a waterfall!! The hike to the arch was awesome as it followed a wandering stream with huge block-like slabs of rock and lots of moss.  I had to limit pictures due to the constant rain.

Whittleton Arch complete with waterfall!

this waterfall is right around the bend in the creek from Rock Bridge

Rock Bridge spans the creek just a couple hundred feet from the waterfall

Princess Arch

We left this area happy to have reached our goal in spite of the rain but definitely wanting to see more!  Some day we must return!

We stopped at a bar called Sky Bridge Station leaving the forest as they advertised selling local brews.  We were not disappointed.  They had a good selection and we enjoyed a local IPA there!

These beautiful tree
flowers
must be a type of
magnolia.

They are huge!