Let's Go Places: Red River Gorge, Kentucky feat. Serpent Mound, Shrum Mound, and a Capitol

Friends, who wants to come along for a long weekend adventure with me??????  The primary activity will be staring at rocks.

Well, now that pretty much everyone except you has said "no thanks", let's pack up the car and get wheels up.  We're going to a place called Red River Gorge in Kentucky.  It's about a five hour drive so we have time to make a few stops along the way.

How This Trip Came To Be

Our destination is c/o social media.  Back in 2024 I saw a Facebook post about New River Gorge in West Virginia, went there, and was wowed.  That prompted the algorithm to put Red River Gorge in Kentucky on my feed.  I had wanted to go there in the spring of 2025 when I went to Frankfort, but ran out of time, and RRG had been on my travel bucket list ever since.  The notable feature of RRG is that there are a large number of natural bridges and arches, which are created by rain and wind eroding rock over time.  RRG has the largest number of these formations outside of Utah.

Most of my traveling is solo, so when I say "we" usually I mean "me plus the person reading this", but it just so happens that this trip is an exception. Hubs came along to join in the fun!  At the start of the summer I gave him a list of trip ideas ranging from day trips to a full week, and RRG was the one that he picked from the list.

I hit up Google and YouTube, plus my knowledge of things that are on the way to come up with the following plan:

• Thursday June 11: drive to RRG, stop at Serpent Mound in Ohio on the way.
• Friday June 12: fit in as many hikes as possible.  My list included Natural Bridge State Park, Chimney Top Rock, Sky Bridge Trail, Rock Bridge Trail and Creation Falls, a drive of the scenic byway, and a kayak tour of a cave.
• Saturday June 13: whatever we didn't get to on Friday.
• Sunday June 14: drive home, stopping at Ohio's Hottest New Tourist Attraction of 2026 (let the guessing begin!), Shrum Mound in Columbus, and finally it was time to get Hubs in on my Capitol Quest with a tour of the Ohio Capitol building.

Now that we have our plan, let's do it!

Let's Drive to Red River Gorge!

On Thursday morning I packed up my gear for the weekend, dropped Doggo off at boarding, and then picked up Hubs.

A few hours later we arrived at Serpent Mound in south west Ohio.  It is exactly what the name implies: an ancient earthwork of a giant serpent.  I had visited before, but the observation tower was closed at the time, so I couldn't really see it.

The only problem is that the serpent is so large in proportion to the size of the observation tower that you can't really see it from the observation tower either.

I'd still recommend dropping by if you are in the area (it's off the beaten path, so the definition of "in the area" means "driving between Columbus and Cincinnati with a bit of free time"), but you're going to need an assist from YouTube to make sense of what you're seeing (disclaimer: I picked this video because it's short and had the best view of the mound of the ones I saw...I personally would take the last few sentences of the video with a huge grain of salt).

We continued on our way and arrived in Red River Gorge that evening.

Let's Rate the Airbnb!

The unit was a tiny A-frame cottage with attached pond.

It was very tiny, but there was enough room for a long weekend stay and it was close to everywhere that we needed to be.

Let's Go to Natural Bridge State Park!

I wasn't sure where to start our adventures, but many of the YouTube videos that I'd seen highlighted Natural Bridge State Park, so that was our first destination.

On the way, we saw the signs for Nada Tunnel, so we took a brief detour to check it out.

It's an old rail tunnel that supports one lane of traffic on a two way road.  The method of transit is to do your best to see if other vehicles are coming from the opposite direction, turn on your headlights, and hope for the best.  We ended up making many passes through the tunnel on our adventures, and the first time was the only time with an issue.  When we arrived there were two vehicles in the tunnel ahead of us with others trying to get in from the other side.  The lead car had a trailer, and it took a few minutes for the driver to persuade the traffic from the other direction that he couldn't just casually back up in the tunnel.  After a few minutes everyone got their business figured out and traffic continued as normal.

As usual, YouTube can give you a better view than me.  The tunnel is long enough that it's not as easy as it would seem to see oncoming traffic from the other side.

Anyhoo, after that adventure we headed for the park.  I wasn't sure where the trail started, so we went to the park resort where the parking lot was chock full of Vespas.  They were quite loud.

We found our way to the trail and set off on our first hike.

It's just under a mile of mostly uphill to get to the bridge.

From there it's time to squeeze it in a bit to get to the bridge.

The passages looked alarmingly small on YouTube, but one of the videos that I'd seen was made by some fairly generous sized people, so I knew that it was doable.  I had to turn to the side to accommodate my broad shoulders but IRL it didn't feel too claustrophobic.

The wild thing is that all of my "bridge" photos from the weekend just look like normal ground.  It really doesn't look like we're standing on a giant rock way up high.

And yet that's exactly what we're doing.

We continued on the trail to the overlook, which gave us another view of the bridge.  On the way we passed the sky lift, which is another way to get to the top.  But hold that thought for now.

We continued on, choosing our route based on what looked good on the trail signs.  There was a difficult part with a lot of stairs, and I'm not sure if that was the infamous Devil's Gulch or just another set of tough stairs.  Other stops included Lover's Leap (spoiler, neither one of us leaped) and Rock Garden.

Eventually we arrived at the bottom and took the sky lift back to the top.  It's a 20 minute ride.  Everything about Natural Bridge was a wow, and the sky lift was a wow on top of a wow.

This turkey raced us to the top, and was in the lead for a good while before the terrain got too hilly.

From there we retraced our steps to the bridge and the resort.  After that we had lunch and relaxed until it was time to set off on our next adventure.

Let's Kayak in a Cave!

Once upon a time there was a limestone mine, and one day they drilled in a spot where they didn't mean to drill and the mine flooded.  The water came in, but had no way to get out.

When life hands you lemons, make lemonade!  The mine shut down, and Gorge Underground moved in.

When I checked on Wednesday night tours were sold out for Saturday and there were only a few slots open for Friday.  We did the classic tour (the only tour with availability).

There have been many tests over the years to see if there is a way out of the cave via water, and one of those tests was bringing trout in to the lake.  Sure enough, none of the trout got out, so that answered that question.  The tourists enjoyed seeing them, so the company set up a section of the cave with both food (for the trout) and lights (for the tourists to be able to see the trout).  Since the cave is a closed water system, there is no way for other species to get into the water, so the trout live a predator-free existence.

The tour ended and it was time for dinner.  We headed over to the Red River Rockhouse for burritos.  The portion sizes were "obscene by normal standards but appropriate by hiking standards".

With that we called it on our first day of Red River Gorge adventures.

Let's Go Hiking!

The next day we headed out again.  Our intention was to drive the scenic byway and stop off at the "greatest hits" on the way. We drove through the tunnel again and saw a sign for a suspension bridge, which caught our attention.  

It also caught our attention that there was a sign at the trailhead saying that the bridge was closed due to damage from a falling tree.  But we were already stopped and the bridge was only a quarter mile away, so we decided to check it out.

We did not hate our life decisions.

Sure enough, the bridge is out of commission for a while.

We got back in the car and headed up the road for Sky Bridge.

It was a fairly short hike to get to the top of the bridge.  It really does not look like a group of people casually hanging out on top of a giant rock in the sky, but that's exactly what is happening.

After checking out the top, we followed the path to the bottom.

Is it just me or does it look like an elephant is holding the bridge up?

Next up we went to Rock Bridge, which is the site of Creation Falls.  It was a very hot day, and as soon as we saw everyone in the water, we couldn't get our shoes off fast enough.  Whenever we come across a stream with Doggo she always wants to go in the water, and now I understand why.  It felt so refreshing.

Normally I would not take the trouble to remove someone's face from a picture, and the only reason I'm doing it here is that I have beef with this person.  We were at the falls for a good long while, and she was camped out on her photo shoot.  It was a constant cycle of her friend taking photos, passing the phone to her, her scrolling through the pics, and passing the phone back to her friend for more pics.  She is in Every.Single.Photo I have of the falls.  My life's motto is that the only bad picture is the one you didn't take, but this was a little much.  I wonder how long she was there in total?  Did she return the favor and take pictures of her friend?

After our dip, we continued on to the rock bridge.  This one was beyond our skill level to cross.

Our final stop was the dual trailhead for Chimney Top Rock and Princess Arch.  Chimney Top Rock gets a huge shoutout for being one of the most popular RRG stops.

It's a very short and easy walk out for the views.  The only problem is that you can't see Chimney Top from the Chimney Top.

By now I was really feeling the heat, but we were so close and the walk was so short that there was no way we were not going to see Princess Arch.

The arch was lovely, but the real payoff was this carving on top.

It was dinner time, and The Hungry Hiker was calling our name.  Hubs had a margarita, and I had a bourbon colada.  This would have been a good drink anywhere, but there's something extra special about having bourbon in Kentucky...or maybe it was just the effects of a long day of hiking.  The food was good, too.

Let's Go Home!

On Sunday morning, we packed up and headed home.  Naturally we made a few stops along the way.

Stop #1 Ohio's Hottest New Tourist Attraction of 2026

You either know what Buc-ee's is or you don't.  The chain is starting to make its way north, and a few months ago it made it to Ohio.

I had no idea what Buc-ee's was before I needed to make a pit stop on the road from Atlanta to Montgomery a few months ago.  Yes it's a gas station, yes it's food, yes it's a general store, and yes it is a city of sparkling clean restrooms, but that doesn't begin to describe the experience.  One of the SILs had been raving to Hubs about her own Buc-ee's experience, which made it a must stop.

It was a must stop for every one else in the tri-state area as well, because the place was packed.  We braved the rush for the Buc-ee's Bathroom Experience and then checked out the food.  The guy at the checkout line told us that the store is always crazy busy on weekends.

This is where things get meh.  The brisket sandwiches were fine but not stellar, and the chips were lame.

The beaver nuggets tho...well, I've only tried the white fudge and I adore everything covered in white fudge so I can't speak to the other flavors.  I also got some pralines and a few other snacks which I enjoyed and which I will most likely stock back up on when I'm back in the area next week.

Stop #2 Shrum Mound

Shrum Mound is in Columbus, and I had previously been there during Leaf Peep 2023.  I've visited quite a few mounds in my travels, and Hubs avidly follows rumors of mounds that are allegedly in our area but not on the map.  It was our first time visiting a mound together.

The view didn't compare to the epic views we'd been seeing all weekend, but it was welcome all the same.  It's worth clicking back to the 2023 post where the mound was neatly mowed and the fall colors were in full effect.

Stop #3: The Ohio Capitol!!!

Yep, I gave Hubs a taste of my capitol quest.  This was my first repeat tour of a capitol.

The first thing that I need to do is to set a camera error straight.  When I toured the capitol before, it was a bright sunny day, and the picture that I posted in my recap washed out the colors in the center of the dome.  Nance commented that it looked like an Old Lady Peppermint candy, which made me chuckle and even in this picture as long as you don't look too closely, it does.

Until you visit on an overcast day and get a better look.  I was shocked that my memory does not match the reality.  The image in the center is the Ohio state seal.

One of the things that I track in my capitol recaps is if the guide points out any fossils in the stonework.  For the previous tour the answer was no, but this time the answer was yes.

The tour ended, and vacation was officially over.  We headed home.

Red River Gorge Wrap Up

It's been a while since I've done a mere long weekend trip, and I have relearned the lesson that it's amazing how much you can pack into a short visit.

With that said, I know that we barely scratched the surface of what RRG has to offer, so it's a guarantee that we will be back.

Thanks for the good times, Red River Gorge!  Who Has Been There?  Ever kayaked in a cave?  Been to Buc-ee's?  Been misled by the colors in a picture compared to reality?