Thursday, April 8, 2010

Weekend at Natural Bridge


View from Lover's Leap
Originally uploaded by TheTurducken
April isn't the cruelest month, but it may be the busiest. Last weekend I went to Natural Bridge State Park in Kentucky, near Lexington. You may have heard of the general region it is in - the Red River Gorge, a mecca for climbers. But there is a lot of good hiking there. Some members of the group climbed, whereas I just hiked. We ended up with three absolutely beautiful days of weather.

Geologically, the hills aren't mountains but gorges worn down around sandstone. (You can see this when you look at the horizon - instead of being peaky, the hills are flat on top.) The result is not only formations like the one pictured, but natural arches, such as the one the park is named after. I found it hard to get a good arch photo; it seems I was always too close or too far away. But if you click through you will see that I tried anyway.

I'm in and out of town a lot this month; this weekend I will be at a park very similar to Natural Bridges, Big South Fork on the Kentucky/Tennessee border. It has a lot of similar rock formations, such as arches and cliffs, but it doesn't have as many panoramic views.

No comments: