Red River Gorge (Kentucky) - Miscellany

Tuesday, 30 July 2019

We managed to get in one more short walk between thunderstorms, but mostly we decided to drive around the area.

We knew the road went through Nada Tunnel, but what we didn't know was that it was just barely large enough to get a vehicle through it. According to Wikipedia, the tunnel is only 12 feet wide and 13 feet high. We thought our rear-view mirrors were going to touch the sides!

Wikipedia says that the tunnel is 900 feet long. All I can say is that it was a challenge to drive a full-size pickup truck through it.

A pedestrian suspension bridge crosses the Red River.

Another look at the suspension bridge.

Overlook along the road to Sky Bridge. The rain showers were creating fog in many places.

When we got back to our campsite, we found our tent sitting in about a 1/2 inch of water. We seemed to have found the only campsite that didn't drain.

Rather than sleep in a half-inch of water (with more storms on the way), we decamped to a hotel for the night!

A good source for information on hiking in the Red River Gorge, go to "to Red River Gorge.com".

Red River Gorge (Kentucky) - Gray's Arch

Tuesday, 30 July 2019

After a leisurely start to the day, we took a 4-mile loop that took us by Gray's Arch in the middle of the Geological Area.

Overhanging cliffs along the trail to Gray's Arch.

Bands of color in the cliffs, and two large trees with their root systems firmly embedded in the rocks.

The cliff right next to Gray's Arch.

Gray's Arch is large and substantial, but very difficult to photograph.

Interesting patterns in a sandstone boulder.

On our return to the parking lot along Rush Ridge Trail had several nice overlooks, but approaching thunderstorms made us keep up a steady pace.

Along the ridges, the trail looked as if it had been covered with sand. It is covered with sand, but only because repeated footfalls have cleared overlying organic matter from the trail and help crush the sandstone into sand.

We got back to our truck just as the rain started to get intense. For the rest of the day we dodged thunderstorms.

Red River Gorge (Kentucky) - Silvermine Arch

Monday, 29 July 2019

On our way from Pittsburgh to Chicago, we decided to take a short two-day camping detour to the Red River Gorge Geological Area in eastern Kentucky. The area is a complex system of small canyons with over 100 natural arches carved into the sandstone base.

The Red River Gorge is in the Daniel Boone National Forest, so it's actually difficult to see the geology through the thick forest. The photo above shows an overlook of the Silvermine Arch canyon. It would be much more photogenic from late fall through early spring, although the trails could be treacherous with a dusting of snow and/or ice.

Most of the trails use long staircases to traverse the steep cliffs. This one was 79 steps straight down (and straight up on the return).

The trails wind along 50 to 100 ft tall cliffs.

Silvermine Arch is not particularly tall!

Caught on Trail Cams

A bobcat or two have triggered our trail cams recently. They're pretty regular visitors.

Even though it has IR illumination at night and is supposed to be "invisible", many animals seem to know exactly what is going on.

Coyotes show up almost every day -- frequently more than once. This one was clearly carrying a rabbit in its mouth.

Lately a black bear has been raiding our neighbor's trash and leaving a mess in our woods. (We haven't had problems with bears since getting bear-resistant trash cans many years ago.)

Geese in Richmond

I recently had to attend a meeting in Richmond, and Lon went along and brought his bicycle to ride on the Virginia Capital Trail. On his return to Richmond, Canada geese blocked his way. Obviously, there will be lots more adult geese next year!

Hurricane Hunters

It's Hurricane Awareness Week, and two "hurricane hunter" aircraft came to the Roanoke airport yesterday. Most hurricane fatalities are due to inland flooding, so Roanoke is a good location to remind everyone of the dangers of flash floods from excessive rainfall. Who could pass up an opportunity to visit these aircraft (an Air Force C-130 and a NOAA P3-Orion)?

The first plane we got to see was an Air Force C-130. We waited about an hour to tour this plane. Who knew that so many people would come out on a Wednesday afternoon?

We entered through the rear cargo door of the aircraft.

The "dropsonde" port. Dropsondes are used on both aircraft, and send data back to the plane as they fall through the hurricane.

NOAA (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration) has a Navy plane, the P3-Orion.

Workstation to monitor data on the NOAA plane.

The front of the NOAA plane reminds me of a narwhal.

This aircraft has studied 106 hurricanes/typhoons/cyclones going back to 1976. (Strong tropical systems are called hurricanes in the Atlantic and eastern Pacific Oceans, typhoons in the western Pacific Ocean, and cyclones in the Indian Ocean.)

Wildlife & More

So I've been procrastinating before posting these pix ...

Signs of spring (this is back in April): Hepatica

We got rid of rickety old wood racks on our deck and built some more substantial ones.

An interesting "tree arch" in the national forest near our property.

From the right angle it can look like an animal (horse? donkey? rhinoceros?).

Now for some real animals. It's been many months since our trail cams caught a black bear moseying by.

Coyotes are commonly seen on our trail cams, but this one appears to be carrying a fresh kill to its den.