Nature: Only a Camping Trip Away

Before I even considered coming to Transy for school, my family was introduced to Red River Gorge through my dad's father's family reunion. The first time we went we spend the morning awkwardly meeting family that we'd never heard of before and the afternoon hiking the Gorge. I remember my parents, my sisters and I encountering a herd of bison and thinking that we must be out in the middle of nowhere because I'd never seen anything like the wildlife or the Gorge before. Little did I know that the Gorge and all of it's natural beauty was only a short 45 minute drive from Lexington and Transylvania University for that matter.

Me, my Grandparents, and a Great Aunt at the Family Reunion last year

I don't think I've ever told you, but I'm a fiend for camping. I love packing up all the food, sleeping bags, and tent and getting away from everything every once in a while. My love for camping stems back to my childhood where we would camp where ever the best IndyCar race happened to be during the summer. Interestingly enough, I don't have a lot of friends at school that are too crazy about going off the grid for any extended period of time but I finally talked up a camping trip to the Gorge enough that I had some of my best friends, Erica and Emily, (and boyfriends) agree to go. We picked the weekend before May Term even began and started the countdown for the big weekend. We watched weather.com carefully as it detail the thunderstorms and rain that was planned for our weekend and we bravely loaded the car with our supplies for the weekend. (Tent, tarp, blankets, pillows, sleeping bags, chairs, 1 big jar of pickles, 48 hot dogs, and assorted Great Value food items.) The sky was overcast so we hurried to set up our tent and the rest of the site before rain had a chance to get everything wet, but the sky cleared up some and we passed the night making a fire and roasting hot dogs.

Chris, Tommy, me and Emily in front of our [almost] set-up tent

Early the next morning, I was awaken by the birds squawking and I got up and putted around until the rest of the group woke up. We had a light breakfast and looked over the maps of the area to pick out the best trails for our hike. We decided to hike up to Natural Bridge through a series of paths in the area. Unfortunately we ended up on a trail that we hadn't intended and on the map it even had a warning that it was an intense trail where the hiker would be faced with many stairs. We struggled through the stairs and marveled at the rock formations and other beautiful aspects of the trail, and finally we made it to the top and to the Natural Bridge. The Natural Bridge is exactly what it sounds like a big huge rock formation that bridges two parts of the mountain together and you can walk over it.

Me, Tommy, Erica, Chris, and Emily on top of the natural bridge

We loafed around on top of the area and explored some and then went back down and back to our campsite. The campground was really cool in that part of the river ran through the middle of it, so at our campsite we had the road across from us and the river on the other side of the road. It was clean and shallow and we played in it during the hottest part of the afternoon and then lay of the shade on the bank of the other side napping and reading and just enjoying the area. Later, as we were cooking our dinner (hot dogs) it started to rain so we grabbed some snacks and hung out in the tent for the night playing card games.

Wilderness Women (Me, Erica and Emily) hanging out in the tent during the rain

We woke up early to still wet conditions and decided to pack up and leave; we were back to Transy in time for brunch in the caf. The thing that amazed me was how close to Lexington this amazing geological area was and how far away we felt. I know several people ask about the size of Lexington. Is it too big? Is it too small? And in my opinion, it's just right. You have some really cool cultural opportunities that are typical to bigger cities like Festival Latino de Lexington or the Roots & Heritage Festival and you have malls and shopping and good food but you also are surrounded by horse farms and the rolling hills of central Kentucky and just a little further away you can find amazing wilderness like Red River Gorge and the rest of Daniel Boone National Forest.

Wilderness Women survey the wilderness

Lexington seems to be situated perfectly in the middle of big cities and big country, and neither is too far away for a day or weekend trip. There are orientation programs that travel around the state to work with people in Appalachia, students frequently take weekend adventures camping, and there's even a couple of mountain climbers hanging around campus. Keep it in mind, the world is just at Lexington's doorstep and Transy likes to hang out on the front porch.