Natural Bridge Inner Loop

Natural Bridge State Park “Inner Loop”

Balanced Rock/Hood’s Branch/Low Gap/Rock Garden/Original Trail Combo (Whew!)

Friday, April 17, 2009

Curses! Drat! Oh well…

Egad!

In seriousness, my plans for today didn't really emerge as I'd intended but that didn’t end up bothering me too much. When things don’t work out I know that it just means that I was meant to see something different. This was the case today, as an unforeseen twist would take me on a path which may now be my favorite in this park – an area I’d previously missed.

Things had finally dried up a bit in terms of weather and since I hadn’t hiked in a week I was really ready to get out. So, in order to make up for lost time, I thought I’d take what has become (along with the Moonbow Trail at Cumberland Falls State Park) one of my favorite spring hikes: the Sand Gap (what I call the “outer loop”) Trail here at Natural Bridge. What I hadn’t reckoned on, though, were the ice storms that we’d had over the winter. As a result I'd later find out that Sand Gap was closed due to some of the bridges having been taken out – a liability concern for the park.

The drive to Natural Bridge is just a little over an hour from Lexington, and I feel lucky for this because it’s one of the best parks in a state which has many. When I arrived a little before noon, having parked at the activities center, I first stopped by a room in the center which had some examples of the wildlife to be found in the area. It also had on display some of the plants and flowers, even going so far as to explain a little bit of the history of the area. Quite a bit of work had been put into all this and it was very nicely done.

Having experienced this, I took off on down the trail which begins around the back of the building. You’re basically on the edge of a ravine here which has a little stream running down and it’s really lush and beautiful with an awesome network of wooden stairs and bridges which seem to travel in myriad directions all about the place. The bridges, in particular, are all quite well made and it’s obvious that (along with the stone bridge which gave name to the park) they take the “bridge” in Natural Bridge State Park very seriously out here!

The trail really begins in earnest after this and, having climbed up a steep stairway, I took a left onto the Balanced Rock Trail which is part of this loop. This spot is the first place which will provide a level spot in which to rest if you like, but don’t get too comfortable as you’re only about 1/5 of the way up I’d guess. There’s a nice shelter with a rock overhang here.

Not too long after this you’ll come to Balanced Rock which you’ll pass on your left (the picture below was taken looking back though, as it was the best view in my opinion). You really can’t miss this one. Y’know, things like this just make me want to throw my hands up in the air and laugh! They’re that cool! That rock is just kinda hangin’ out!

As you continue an ascent, you might be impressed (as I certainly was) with how they’ve either input or just carved out little stone steps in between some of the rocks to make the climbing a bit easier. For me, this just adds to the aesthetic effect.

When you come to a second rock overhang you’ll be getting close to the top, and you’ll find yourself in a cleared out area just to the side of the top of this ravine you’ve been climbing up. In fact, as you look across the way to your right you may see some people over there - they’re on the other side of the Natural Bridge which you will presently come to.

Once you’ve passed the overhang, look up and to your left. You might see some metal steps ascending at the top of the rocks in what looks like a pretty precarious position. I’m not sure if they allow you up there or not, to be honest – I’ve never tried.

I met a family in here - a mom with 2 young boys. I’d guess they were somewhere between 7 or 8, maybe? Anyway, they mentioned that they came out here every year as a kind of getaway, overnighting at one of the rental cabins. They brought to my attention a place which I’d not been to yet or even heard about: a place with a suspension bridge - and you get to it by driving through a tunnel?!? How sweet would that be!?! Next trip maybe… [Turns out this bridge is where the Sheltowee Trace crosses over the Red River]

Once at the top of the ridge I began walking along the semi-circle it forms ( Natural Bridge is in the middle of this) and, getting to the bottom of a decline, I reached the intersection with the Sand Gap Trail – closed! Those ice storms must have really created an incredible amount of work for the people who take care of this park. I can only imagine all the time and energy they must have spent lugging out chainsaws to these paths and cutting through all the trees which must surely have fallen across at numerous locations.

At any rate, I continued on toward the bridge and a really nice gazebo shelter for the overlook that they’ve got up here.

At this point you can continue on across the bridge to the other side of the ridgeline or you can go down some steps they’ve got to your left and see the underside of the bridge. I descended. I couldn’t quite remember where to catch up with Hood Branch, but I knew I’d find it eventually. I had my guidebook too as I always do just in case, but that’s not nearly as much fun to me as trying to find a place on my own!

It’s when you get to the bottom of these steps, though, that you encounter a little space (maybe a tad more than a foot wide - maybe) through the rocks which you have to pass through – “Fat Man’s Misery”! At this point, I’m pretty much throwing my hands in the air and laughing again even though I’ve seen this before! Unreal! You have to walk through it sideways (the second picture was taken looking back)!

At the bottom of the steps you’ll have the bridge straight ahead and Hood’s Branch will head off to the left. You'll be on Hood’s Branch for the next 3 miles of this loop I'm describing today, eventually winding up in the parking lot for the skylift. Didn’t I mention the skylift? :) It’s coming up…

At any rate, as I started on this path, it quickly became clear that it was very similar to Sand Gap but with a couple of exceptions: it’s about 5 miles shorter, of course, but it’s also not quite as peaceful because of all the people you’ll hear from atop the bridge. It will, however, take you around several ridgelines as it undulates anywhere between the bases of the mountains and the tops of them. As you meander you’ll be moving through jungles of rhododendron which will give you a dense, lush feel in the Spring and Summer months.

Anyway, once around the first ridge it’ll get a lot quieter and you'll get a better feel for the forest around you. You’ll also pass many little trickling streams which come down from various spots and many of these have little bridges over them. There are, I’d say, nearly a dozen of these just on Hood’s Branch alone and as I walked a thought occurred to me... At times I feel as if I’m not adequately describing the things which I pass. I try to describe the most visible things, of course, but there’s so much scenery that I do pass which I don’t describe. This isn’t because it isn’t memorable. Every inch of every hike is memorable to me.

The thought, however, was that even though you’ll pass large areas where the scenery appears to be much the same, it’s these areas which provide the most depth in terms of your experience. The popular spots are great in terms of a sensory experience, but I think there’s a level at which nature “speaks” to a person more deeply. The areas which seem to be similar for long stretches may, in fact, be the areas where the things you are experiencing etch themselves more deeply into your being and bring you the peaceful feeling which so often overcomes you on a trip through the outdoors.

Sorry, I’m not usually this deep as far as my thoughts go… are my trips through the outdoors driving me insane? Possibly… :)

Anyway, just before I got to the junction where the little loop for the Upper Hood’s Branch Trail came in, there was a wooden plank bridge (which went over… guess what… Hood’s Branch!). I stopped in the center of this for a while to watch some spiders. Look at the incredible shadows they form on the water!

The shadow is much more visible than the spider itself, but these arachnids really seemed to be getting some exercise. It appeared as if they were attempting to stay in place against the little current of this stream and every time the water would float them down they would kind of “skim” back up. It was fun to watch.

After crossing the bridge I went left at the sign for Upper Hood’s Branch which was the area I had not previously seen. Upper Hood’s is a loop and there’s another sign almost immediately after the bridge. This particular one is a bit confusing, however. Since this trail is a loop you can go either way but this sign only points in one direction - I think it should point in both.

Lemme tell ya though - this section of the trail really rocks! Literally. It takes you to a series of rock overhangs which today had little trickles of water going over them. Well, by the time I got to this point I was perspiring quite a bit. Should I do it? Why not? It wouldn’t hurt anything. I walked underneath and cooled off.

There’s a large portion of this trail which is almost a continuous rock overhang. It’s so awesome that the hawks must like it here too! At one point I was startled at what sounded like a huge animal in the brush - it turned out to be a hawk. Usually I’ll see large birds flying around and I’ll think that they’re hawks but they’ll almost always be turkey buzzards. This one was definitely a hawk.

As you come around the back arc of this circle you’ll cross over another nice bridge. This one spans what was today a nearly a dry streambed. There’s also a point where you’ll almost think (at least I did) that the trail will end at a cave wall, but it won’t. It’ll follow just to the left. I’ll just be honest and say that I really could’ve stayed out here for a couple hours just taking all this in. It's a great spot!

Right after this, there was one point where the trail went right up and through the root system of a downed tree.

Negotiate through some more rhododendron jungles in this pine forest, and you’ll soon be back by the sign at which you started this little circle.

You should really take some time to appreciate the pines though, because at times you’ll catch the most amazing scent from them! Also entering my awareness in this section was a lone dogwood tree which provided a bit of color amid the sea of brown and green today. I did see some wildflowers too, but not nearly as many as I usually do at this time of year.

Below is one of the ones I did see, however. I believe this to be a trillium only because I now have a "cheat sheet" of the flowers that I got by taking a picture of the illustrated wildflower chart back I saw back at the Activities Center when I started.

The path follows very closely along Hood’s Branch now as it meanders down through the valley which the stream created. It’s a gradual descent at first, in which you’ll catch more great pine forest scenes. Always interesting to me, as well, are the simple meanders of the streams which can outwit themselves by doubling over and tying themselves in knots to form lakes. They call these oxbow lakes. I suppose there can also be oxbow ponds. It’s a really interesting phenomenon.

At one point there’s another nice little shelter at which you can take a breather. At another point I noticed a couple people down in the valley below me. I was thinking: “Hmmm… I don’t think that’s part of the recognized trail system… Those people probably shouldn’t be down there…” Well, it finally dawned on me as I began to see more and more people on this “path” that these people were in the air! They were on the skylift! The angle had given the appearance that they were fellow hikers. :)

The lift ascends from the parking lot that you'll reach shortly, and it will cross over Hood’s Branch in the lower part of this valley before taking you to the top of the mountain. In fact, you’ll be able to see the rock cliffs on the other side of this valley on your right. By this time you’ll also be hearing signs of civilization with the people on the skylift, the people on top of the mountain, and the hum of the machinery from the lift.

Presently you’ll start to descend more earnestly as said parking lot and a miniature golf course emerge into view. Things get a little interesting here. This trail loop I've been describing continues all the way over on the other side of the parking lot at about the 1 o’clock point. When it restarts you'll be on the Low Gap Trail.

However, I took a little detour before continuing in order to get a closer look at the skylift station. I don’t remember it, but my parents brought us out here when we were kids and, since I’d never taken the time to walk up to it on my previous hikes, I wanted to get a decent picture. It actually looks a lot like the entrance you’d see to a ride at King’s Island.

After this, it was on to a somewhat confusing series of trails which started with the one called Low Gap. The trail took me up and through a little ravine that might just have been the namesake of this trail. In fact, at one point it looks like the path follows directly along a drainage route so that you might be walking right through a little streambed when it's raining.

Then, when you reach the top of the ridgeline you may notice that there are quite a few large boulders lying around. There’s even a neat little area where the rocks are all almost totally covered in moss. I was guessing that by this point the Low Gap must have morphed into the Rock Garden Trail. There are also other intersections along this section which will take you back up to Natural Bridge, but I continued straight on as I headed in the direction of Hemlock Lodge. This area, by the way, was starting to get really crowded even for a weekday. A party of about 20 people passed me at one point.

The Battleship Rock Trail was the next but it, like the Sand Gap, was closed today. Yet again, and almost immediately after this, there will be yet another junction. This one is for the Original Trail and you'll see another little shelter visible just a little way up. These were built by the Civilian Conservation Corps and this particular one had a 1934 marker. The CCC was started by Franklin Roosevelt to employ people after the depression and it made me wonder… President Obama has talked about the government employing people for infrastructure projects… Will the CCC be “restarted”?

I took a left onto the Original Trail and then took an almost immediate right to soon arrive back at the exact spot where I’d finished climbing my first section of steps today. Before leaving I just kind of admired this little ravine for a while with the water trickling down and all the lush vegetation around me. What a great park!

DIRECTIONS:

I simply took KY11 off the Bert T. Combs Parkway and followed the signs for Natural Bridge (it seems like they’ve got signs within a 50 mile radius of this place though!). I went past the main entrance to the one which has a sign for the cabins on it (it’s on the right just past the Whittleton Campground entrance on the left). I then just kept following the signs for the activities center and parked there.