Admiring the view!

Sunday
After church in the morning as usual, Roger and I packed up the car and drove down to Red River Gorge in Kentucky for a three night get-away to celebrate my birthday on Tuesday. The Intricate canyon system of the area features an abundance of Sandstone cliffs, rock shelters and natural bridges - there are more than 100 natural Sandstone arches in the Red River Gorge Geological area. It is a popular area for hiking and backpacking, and especially rock climbing, for which it is one of the top spots in the country. It had been a dull overcast morning, but over the course of the 2 1/2 hour drive, the weather cleared, leaving us with a beautiful late afternoon and evening. We had rented a cabin, so our first point of call was to the rental office to pick up the key. The cabin itself was tucked away high up a gravel road, surrounded by trees. There was one other cabin nearby, but that didn’t appear to be occupied for the days we were there. By the time we had un packed the car - we had taken most of our food with us for three days, and a few kitchen items, since you can never be sure what will be provided - it was almost 4pm, so there was just time for a shortish hike before dinner. We went to nearby Natural Bridge State Park and hiked the “Original trail” up to Natural Bridge, one of the largest arches in the area. My top picture shows a young couple sitting admiring the view from the top of Natural Bridge across to Lookout Point, while the lower picture is taken in reverse, showing the bridge from Lookout Point. We came down to Red River Gorge for my birthday last year too, but last year we were also blessed with the company of our eldest daughter Jen.