Kentucky: Middle Fork Campground at Natural Bridge State Resort Park, Red River Gorge, and more

June 2019, Weekday-weekend, 3 nights

Below Princess Arch in Red River Gorge.

We loved this area when we visited in 2016. We stayed in Whittleton Campground then, and I previously provided a lot of information about that campground and some of the hiking trails. You can click this link for that blog post. I am providing new details in this post.

View from campsite B015 after most campers left on Sunday.
Click photo to enlarge it and see nearby labeled sites.

Middle Fork campsite B015

All of the RV campsites in this campground are the same as the ones in Whittleton with water and 20/30 amp power. Again, some of the hookups are quite a distance away, so extra hose and cord may be needed. 

Another view from campsite B015.
Our first evening before we purchased firewood!

Campsite B015 is in an excellent location on the stream, and would be a great site on quiet weeknights, or if you have kids who want to swim. We would never choose this site on a weekend again, because during our stay, the stream and back of our site became the local swimming hole. We enjoyed a peaceful Friday afternoon along the water when we first arrived, and again later in the day on Sunday after most people had left. It was very noisy on our site Friday evening, and when we returned from hiking Saturday afternoon. The road visible in the photo above only goes inside the park, so traffic from that road was not heavy or bothersome. 

Campsite B014

Campsite B014 also has a good view of the water, and it is not on the most desirable water access spot, so our neighbors did not get as much foot traffic as we did. Our personal favorite, if we stay here again, is campsite B09. We had not chosen that campsite when making our reservation, because the photo on the reservation site does not show the stream. You can see the water from site B09, and the site is a bit more private than B015. 

We did not stay at Koomer Ridge, like I had thought we would this visit, since we arrived on a Friday, and wanted to make sure we had a reservation beforehand. 

Red River Gorge

We drove Tunnel Ridge, Sky Bridge, and Chimney Top Rock roads, and hiked to several arches and overlooks at each stop. All of the hikes we did this day were pretty easy, although some of the roads were a bit tricky! We must have been the first ones to attempt Chimney Top Rock road that morning, because there was a HUGE tree across the road about a third of the way back. There was no way several men would have moved that trunk. My husband thought he would just drive the truck over it, but I was afraid of getting a flat tire or other trouble from the protruding and split branches. He then remembered he had a tow strap in the truck, so we moved the tree that way. A small passenger car arrived before we had finished, and I imagine they were glad to have the tree removed so they could get through.

Photo above and below: Chimney Rock Top

We saw some amazing views this day. Our only disappointment, is that we did not stop at Grays Arch, because the parking lot was packed with many vehicles, which were almost blocking the road off (yes, in areas where it clearly said "no parking."). Also, we had thought we would be able to tell when we drove over Nada Tunnel, and there was not even a sign. 

Overlooking the stairs down to Hidden Arch at the end of the trail
(visible, if you click the photo to enlarge it).

Sharing a few more pictures from our adventures the first day! The stairs below are on the way to Silvermine Arch, which was one of the longest hikes this day. 

Overlook between Grays Arch parking and Nada Tunnel

Natural Bridge State Resort Park

We started our hike from our campsite, and it is about 1 mile from our site to the Natural Bridge parking area near the swimming pool or Woodland Center. Woodland Center was not open yet when we left in the morning. We went inside there during our last visit. The pool opens at 11 AM, and the cost is $5 per day for adults.

A bridge on Hood's Branch

Again, more info about the trails in the park is available in my previous blog post. This trip, we hiked The Original, Balanced Rock, Laurel Ridge, and Hood's Branch. It is much more difficult to go past Woodland Center and climb Balanced Rock to the top, than it is to take The Original trail!

View from sky lift ~ it is more amazing than any of my pictures show!

It is also more difficult to hike Hood's Branch than Rock Garden and Low Gap, if you want to take the sky lift one-way (which is what we did). I thought Hood's Branch was a bit spooky, because we did not pass anyone else on the trail until after we had hiked half way (about an hour later). This trail is hilly, very narrow in spots, and we saw bear tracks.

Flowering tree from sky lift, which, unfortunately, does not have
much comparison to show the size. The flowers were huge!

I am mildly afraid of heights, and I loved the sky lift back to the top. It was a tad scary for me, but not bad. The view going back up is probably much better than the view on the way down.

Snake near the bottom of The Original trail.

We saw a snake while hiking back to camp, and some bats fluttered out of a cave after we had stopped a few minutes while climbing Balanced Rock trail. We did not see much wildlife beyond that, other than tracks.

I am sure we will visit this area again, as there is so much more to see. We initially wanted to hike Sand Gap trail until we saw this is a 6 to 8 hour hike. There is also more to see outside of this park in Red River Gorge that we did not get to.

Let me know if you have any questions. There is a photo album on my Facebook page with more information, as well.