The Red is a huge area, with trails spread all over the place. Alas to see as much as possible in 4 days, it was not feasible to start hiking at any one location and end at the same spot in 4 days. Instead we resorted to more of a day-hike approach. We would wake up, pack up camp, hike to the car, drive somewhere for a couple of shorter hikes, then drive to a smaller loop we could partially complete that night. Hike out in the morning to the car, and repeat. This provided several advantages. We didn’t have to carry all of our food with us. We could just restock everyday. This greatly reduced weight in our packs. And by going to a parking lot everyday, there was always an outhouse. I never once had to dig a hole in the woods, yay! Also we got to do a lot of hiking without packs, which is always bonus. Especially considering there were at least 2 trails we did specifically that would have been suicide with packs. There are a lot of cliffs in the Red.
It must be mentioned that there is no way Tyler and I would have close to the phenomenal experience we had without the book Hinterlands: Unofficial hiking in Kentucky’s Red River Gorge by Jerrell Goodpaster. There are hundreds of unofficial trails in the Red, many of them go nowhere of significance, but many lead to great vistas or hidden treasures. Without this book and our detailed topographical maps from outrageGIS we would not have enjoyed the Red half as much I suspect. Below I will list our itinerary with what I thought of the trails.
Day 1:
Without packs-
Whistling Arch Trail- After sitting in the car for 7+ hours, it was great to finally hike. Our first arch and a fun boulder to climb up onto. Nice intro to the Red.
Castle Arch Overlook Trail (unofficial)- Our first taste of the Red’s amazing vistas, a short little 0.14 mile hike off of Sky Bridge Road to a neat look at Castle Arch way out yonder.
Buzzard’s Roost South Trail (unofficial)- A good intro to what our hiking will be like. This semi-challenging quarter-mile hike featured a little bit of navigating and one neat chimney-like climbing sequence to get down a slot. From there we saw our first of many rock shelters and were able to climb out onto another point with a great view of the area.
Sky Bridge Trail- A neat 0.8 mile loop, the first part of which you don’t even realize you are walking over a rock bridge until you loop back underneath it.
With packs-
Douglas Trail (unofficial)- A 0.78 mile hike along the Red River, a gorgeous trail. Good campsites abound.
Day 2:
With packs-
Eagle Point Buttress Trail (unofficial)- Sigh, this was supposed to be a challenging but rewarding 1.45 mile hike up through the gorge to 2 sweet overlooks. In reality, due to storm damage, this trail might no longer exist. At least not that we could find. If we hadn’t of been hiking with packs, maybe this wouldn’t have been as bad. But man, this was our only terrible hike of the week. Literally all we did was climb over/under fallen trees with no discernible trails (the beginning was marked with pink flags on tree branches, but they abruptly ended at a rock wall) and gain about 350’ in elevation while whacking through the brush. When we finally scrambled up a steep slope and found a faint trail after some wandering we had no idea where we were, and wound up missing out on both overlooks. Sure we could have backtracked half a mile, but at this point the trail was dead to us, time to move on.
Osborne Trail- A relief after the brutal trek up to Eagle Point. Interesting scenery and nature for the 1.6 miles we were on this trail. We were very grateful when we got to our car in the parking lot and could ditch our packs for a bit.
Without packs-
Bison Way Trail and Sheltowee Trace Trail- 1.1 mile hike to our prize trail.
Indian Staircase Trail (unofficial)- Flat out awesome trail and experience. One of the requirements when visiting the Red, this 0.94 mile trail is a must-do. Indian Staircase features a gigantic rock shelter (at least 500’ long), great views, and of course the staircase! For this, I have to add a picture, which will only be slightly less of an injustice than words would be for this indescribable journey. Photo of Tyler coming up.
Adena Arch Trail (unofficial)- This trail was on our itinerary, but we didn’t realize we had hiked it until we were past it. I still don’t understand where the Sheltowee Trace Trail began/ended/intersected/went?
Adena Arch Direct Trail (unofficial)- This was a steep trail back to the parking lot from Adena Arch. Again, we didn’t realize we had passed Adena Arch until we found ourselves scrambling down a ridge on this direct descent to the parking lot.
With packs-
Rock Bridge Trail- Descends quickly from the Rock Bridge Picnic Area via stairs and then follows Swift Camp Creek for a mile. Waterfalls and Rock Bridge await.
Swift Camp Creek Trail- Follows along the Swift Camp Creek. We had a cool campsite here that was only accessible by rappelling down a couple of short walls to get to the river. It was fun…though I’m not sure how legal our site was. Good thing we practice strict “leave no trace” principles.
Day 3:
Without packs-
Turtle Back Arch Trail (unofficial trail)- Turtle Back Arch was very cool. And it looked like a turtle (see below)! Lots of mini climbing obstacles to reach the overlook above it. Fun trail.
Swift Camp Creek Overlook Trail (unofficial trail)- Not a hard trail by any means, and it went to an overlook. But by this point we had been spoiled with great overlooks. After reaching the end of this we backtracked to our campsite, put on our packs, and hiked back the way we had come to Rock Bridge.
Chimney Top Rock Rock Trail- Short official trail out to a great view of Half Moon. We were unsuccessful at finding Chimney Top Road H and Half Moon on the way out to the end. Luckily we were able to find Half Moon on the way back.
View of Half Moon
Princess Arch Trail- Another short and nifty official trail. Complete with arch (with bonus bear graffiti, see picture below) and overlook. And no, I did not know how little rock separated my butt from a 300’ drop!
Half Moon Trail (unofficial trail)- The single coolest thing I have ever hiked. There are 2 spots leading out to Half Moon where one slip and you are dying after you plummet 350’ into the forest. And that’s referring to the 2 exposed climbing sections (the book describes one as a 5th-class climb… I don’t know what that means). Now I am afraid of heights, and I was able to do these climbs fine (never looking down of course). Though having a spotter is nice as you are unable to see where your feet need to go at the beginning. I dare say Tyler would not have proceeded without me. Coming down is a little more tricky, as the 1st climbing section required us at least to slide down it on our butts…and the 2nd section required a jump down, about 6’ onto a rock landing. Way cool. This trail will for sure leave you with a sense of accomplishment.
Leading out to Half Moon
Above (Tyler) and below (Me) pictures are the first part of the climb.
Jumping down at the end.
The 2nd climb. Below “gracefully” descending this section.
With packs-
Pinch-Em-Tight Trail- Uneventful trail. Kind of reminded me of the beginning stretch of the Kal-Haven Trail off of 10th Street in Kalamazoo. Most of the trail is up on a ridge, and the trail was a bit wider.
Hanson’s Point Trail (unofficial)- This was an out and back scenic detour on our route, so like the upcoming Veranda Trail, we ditched our packs. Lot of storm damage, probably used to be a really easy trail to hike, but now there is a lot of debris to maneuver around. Two fantastic views on this trail!
Rough Trail- Fun and rugged official trail. We camped halfway down it along the Rush Branch Stream. Probably my favorite campsite. Secluded down in a valley with running water babbling all over. Relaxing.
Day 4-
Veranda Trail (unofficial)- After hiking up the gorge from our campsite, we were presented with this short detour of a trail to yep, another sweet vista! God this place is amazing!!
Rough Trail (to Gray’s Arch)- Grey’s Arch is impressive, it’s situated off of a cliff which makes it seem all the larger as you are hiking the base of it.
Whatchamacallit Trail and Classic Crag Overlook Trail- By now we were tired, the Whatchamacallit Trail was much closer to Grey’s Arch than we had anticipated and we were almost back to our car before we realized we had passed the trail. With reluctance we went back to try and find these trails. Sigh, and our first attempt was a fail. We found what we thought was our trail and descended out to the ridge. In our haste, we were almost running. In a related note, we had not seen a snake all weekend and thus I had assumed they were still hibernating for the winter. Final note, the copperhead snake (poisonous) is prevalent in Kentucky, for whatever reason we thought it was a type of rattle snake. It is NOT. Now, to our fruitless hike out on a trail that was not a trail. So scampering over fallen trees and flying down this trail, I am about to step onto one more fallen tree and jump off it. As my foot is descending…something on the tree moves. Snake! About 6’ long and black. I throw myself backward and the snake slithers off into the woods. But no rattle, so at least I didn’t almost step on a copperhead (Chris had a great time telling me that no, in fact copperheads do NOT have a rattle…but fortunately they are brown, so this snake was not a copperhead). Snakes do not scare me…but by no means did I want to step on one. Carefully dissecting my steps, soon after the snake we realized that this trail didn’t go anywhere. Frustrated, we backtracked and decided to look for the real trail for just a few more minutes.
The snake slithering away.
Well we did find the trail. But still shaken from almost stepping on the snake and just generally being tired with a 7 hour car ride awaiting us, we only did the first half of it. Our final view of the Red.
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