About two months ago @daltono and I decided to go to Red River Gorge in Kentucky because I had seen lots of people talking about the gorgeous views on many hiking trails there. Its a little over a 2 hour drive from our location, so it made it easy for a day trip. Soon after our visit I decided I wanted to definitely come back and camp so that way I could go on even more trails, as we had only managed to hike a couple trails.
So I asked my best friend Rowen to come! Rowen and I have been friends since middle school, and have both always been pretty outdoorsy! Of course she said yes, even though neither of us have been tent camping before 😆
I was in charge of planning everything, so I quickly decided on some dates in June so that way I could get the dates off of work. We chose June 13th-15th! The dates worked out perfectly, and since we were sort of going on weekdays the park wouldn’t be as crowded.
After I chose our dates, I found a campground nearby for $14 a night! The campground gave you access to bathrooms and a shower, which I think is a necessity after hiking all day long in 80 degree weather.
So after picking our dates and the campground, we really just had to wait and start figuring out what we would need for our first camping trip! I quickly decided I needed a sleeping bag, fans for Juno (my dog who also came along with us), collapsible food/water bowls also for Juno, batteries, granola, water, dog treats, and other snack food items!
We also already had a bunch of items too like a tent, canopy, a tarp, blankets, a cooler, and fire starting necessities.
Sunday June 13th
I woke up bright and early to pack everything into my little Honda Civic. I chose to drive my car simply because I thought Juno might be more comfortable. After everything was packed I picked Rowen up at around 11:30! After we packed up all of her items, which made my car completely full almost we headed out for our first hiking trail of the day! Skybridge!
Skybridge is a 0.8 mile loop trail with gorgeous views. I chose this trail to be our first one so that way we could leave this trail and head to our campsite and get everything set up before dark. It probably took us about 25 minutes to finish the whole thing, this was one of my favorite trails we did. The view was insane, and we actually went the wrong way so at first we didn’t think we would go on top of the arch and then we soon realized we would be walking on top of the rocks! Here are some photos of our view, and from our time on the trail.
No guardrails to stop you from falling haha
My friend Rowen!
After we were done on this trail we got back into my car and made the 35 minute drive to our campsite to get everything set up. Rowen had a 6 person tent, so it was plenty spacious for the three of us! At first I was worried Juno wouldn’t like sleeping
in the tent, but she did great and slept soundly every night. Here are some photos of everything set up, we definitely had the best campsite! The campground was gorgeous, especially at sunset which I will include some photos of :)
Everyone sound asleep at 6:30am besides me
I was very comfortable sleeping at night. I am very scared of the dark, but I slept surprisingly better than I thought I would! That evening we had hotdogs, and some sandwiches for dinner. We feel asleep decently early for our big hike the next morning!
Check back tomorrow for another blog post about this camping trip! We hiked 6 miles in one day, with amazing views!