Red River Gorge

Behind on blogging again so here's the first update:

Took a quick anniversary trip with Mike and Roman over Labor Day weekend! Every year we try to do a little getaway -even if it's just a day trip. *I* really like taking Roman with us. I feel so bad whenever I travel so I'm glad he was able to come this time. 

That being said, everything we did was dog friendly. There were many other things that looked like fun, but we did not do them because we had our doggy with us. :)

I have been to RRG once before - I did the zipline and saw the natural bridge. (That was probably 10 years ago.) When preparing and researching for this trip I used the sites All Trails and Bring Fido. All Trails is nice because it has trails maps, reviews, and is a great guide for outdoor recreational activities.  Bring Fido has a huge database of pet friendly places to stay, things to do, and places you can eat with your dog. 

FRIDAY: It took probably 2 1/2 hours to drive down from our house.  We ended up doing the Hidden Arch Trail Head which is part of the Daniel Boone National Forest.  It was a 2 mile hike and just the right amount for us to get a taste of what was to come. Since we didn't get there until mid afternoon, by the time we were done, we were ready for dinner.

We saw good reviews for Miguel's Pizza and decided to try it out. We had an AWFUL experience here and would NOT recommend it. It took over an hour to get our pizza. They said there was a problem with their ticket printer and our food was still in the queue.  (??) They did finally offer us a refund and when our pizza came out, we were unimpressed.  It didn't even taste good! I am still surprised at all the great reviews... not worth it in my opinion!

SATURDAY: We started off the day kayaking with Mill Creek Lake Kayak and SUP rental.  We were only out for about an hour because Roman started getting antsy and my back was hurting. :) Mill Creek lake was beautiful and we got there first thing so it wasn't crowded. 

After kayaking we grabbed a quick bite to eat and headed out for our hikes:

Rock Bridge:

Angel Windows:

Sky Bridge:

All of the hikes we did were nice- they weren't too long and all of them were dog friendly.  For me, I prefer shorter hikes (1-2 miles in length) because they're easier (I HATE uphill!!!) and it means we can do multiple hikes in a day as compared to just doing one 8 mile hike.  I also get bored on longer hikes and keep checking how much time we have left... "are we there yet??"  (Yes, I'm a child). :)

I liked Sky Bridge the best, but unfortunately I don't feel like we really got to appreciate the views or the hike. At the start of this hike, my lovely dog decided to roll in dog poop on the trail so he was COVERED. (It was also getting hot, he wanted me to pick him up, etc.)  I think we were all just kind of done by this point.   

We headed back to our cabin and took multiple showers. We technically had the cabin for one more night, but we decided we would rather just travel back home. We saw we wanted to see (with a dog) and, while the cabin was nice, it still wasn't home. (It's also very outdoorsy so think BUGS)

All in all we had nice weather and I don't think anything was too terribly crowded for it being Labor Day weekend. Red River Gorge/Daniel Boone National Forest is home to many great hikes and views and provided us with a nice little getaway.