The Red River Gorge in east-central Kentucky has more than 100 sandstone arches. The gorge’s 29,000 acres include many sandstone cliffs, rock shelters, and waterfalls.
We drove 4.5 hours in pouring rain on Wednesday (11-29-25) from Chattanooga to find fall leaves and hike to Red River Gorge’s arches. Grays Arch is 80 feet across and 50 feet high, and the hike is about 2 miles round-trip.
The rain continued from light to pouring all day. The trails were slick with fallen wet leaves, but the leaves on the trees were beautiful. Our next feature was the natural flying buttress known as Angel Windows Arch.
Whistling Arch is not known for its size, but out of Kentucky’s over 1,000 arches, it is the most melodic when the wind is whistling through it.
Not considered part of the Red River Gorge, Natural Bridge State Resort Park is next door, just minutes from our Airbnb in Slade, Kentucky. It took nature millions of years to sculpt the Natural Bridge Arch perched on the top of a high rock formation. To avoid a steep uphill hike, including over 600 stair steps up, we took the ancient 2-seat Skylift’s slow run to the crest.
You can walk across the top of many of Kentucky’s arches.
To reach the bottom of Natural Bridge Arch, you must negotiate the aptly named crevice, Fat Man’s Squeeze.
To fully appreciate the Natural Bridge Arch’s 78-foot span and 65-foot height, you have to step down the trail and look back. The 1.75-mile trail to the bottom of the Skylift includes many natural rock sculptures and beautiful fall leaves everywhere you look.
We left Natural Bridge State Park early on Friday to stop at the Cumberland Falls State Park on the drive home. This view from the historic Dupont Lodge highlighted how vibrant the leaves were with bright sunshine to make them pop.
Cumberland Falls is 125 feet wide and 88 feet high, making it the second largest waterfall east of the Rocky Mountains.. It is often called the Niagara of the South. During a full moon on clear nights, a moonbow forms in the waterfall’s mist.
Traveling and hiking in cold rain can be exhausting and cause aching muscles and joints. Splurging for a hot tub is well worth it. We’ll be back for more adventures in this beautiful area. Keep the water hot and the bubbles ready.