Cumberland Gap has been evading us for five years. We had it on our original itinerary when we were selling the house, but somehow it didn’t work out along the route and got scrapped. We tried planning it a couple of times on successive rounds around the country, but it simply never happened. Earlier this year we’d even planned on stopping en route to or from Asheville, but the excessively brisk Floridian winter urged us otherwise. So went with plan G. Or maybe H … a weekend trip from from Louisville.
And then we were in Louisville. And the weekends were ticking away. Thunder … Marathon … the Oaks and Derby … Mothers Day … Go go go! We planned on this weekend to make it happen. It’s a very reasonable 2-2.5 hour drive from Shepherdsville.
And Friday forecast heavy thunderstorms throughout the night. We quickly changed plans from a weekend of camping to a night in a hotel before a single night of camping. A nice kick back in a hot tub instead of pitching a tent in a downpour with lightning in; really a no brainer.
We got to Cumberland Gap bright and early on Saturday, before the visitor center even opened, had our pick of campsites, evaded a Boy Scout troop from Ohio, and headed out on a hike directly from the campground. Mad props to any and all NPS parks that loop the campground in to the trail system!
We hiked a loop that we didn’t really measure the distance of. Essentially, we hiked up to the ridge trail, learned about several ‘forts’ that changed hands throughout the Civil War, looped through the Pinnacle, and came down to the saddle.
We saw NOBODY until we were within 20 feet of the paved trails near the
Pinnacle parking lot. Which is normal for National Parks, but still sort of eerie. It was our first real hike since North Dakota, so the tried and true was unique and new again… The overlook was cool, but when it got crowded we retreated back to the trails and headed down to the actual Wilderness Trail across the Saddle of the Gap.
We spent a while basking in the historical importance of the gap; early settlers’ first path to western expansion (or invasion, depending on your point of view) before taking a side trip up to the top of Tri-State Peak, the point where Tennessee, Virginia, and Kentucky meet, and continuing our hike along the
Wilderness Road back to the campground. Ceridwen wrote up a entry on her Wanderlust Bling blog on the historical geek significance of the moment. It was good. We had beautiful, clear views the whole way and the weather was great for hiking, if maybe a bit on the warm side.
When all was said and done, the hike was close to 13 miles, which wiped us out a bit more than we’d expected, so it was a lazy evening around the campsite before settling in to the test to weather the next set of storms that promised to roll in throughout the night. The storms left a nice overcast haze in the morning, so we were glad we enjoyed the hike while the views were good. We harassed the NPS workers at the visitor center and made them show us some historical movies so we could be all learned and stuff.
So now we’ve been to Cumberland Gap. And our original itinerary has been fulfilled, barely five years later. So, I guess that means it’s time to find some new places to explore.
















Categories: Kentucky, National Parks
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