Growing up in nearby North Carolina, I had heard of Natural Bridge in Virginia, but never Natural Tunnel. This geological formation and its namesake state park in the southwestern part of the state was our next stop for two nights. Here's a description of the tunnel's history and geology from Wikipedia: The Natural tunnel, which is up to 200 feet (61 m) wide and 80 feet (24 m) high, began to form more than a million years ago when groundwater bearing carbonic acide percolated through crevices and slowly dissolved limestone and dolomite bedrock. A small river, which is now called Stock Creek, was diverted underground and continued to erode the tunnel over many millennia. There are a couple of steep park roads to get to the park's campground (come on Pearl!), but once we finally arrived, it was level and worth the drive. There are two camping loops. We chose the Lover’s Leap loop, which has 50-amp electric/water back-in gravel sites plus a new and very nice, clean bath house. The other loop is older and has 30-amp electric/water pull-through sites. By our frugal standards, this is a relatively expensive park at $35/night plus a $5 parking fee per stay and state tax. However, an unexpected surprise was the laundry room in the bath house. It was super reasonable at just $1 each for a the washer and dryer, so I did an unplanned load. The campground is up high, so we got a good Verizon 4G LTE signal for internet but only one TV station with our over-the-air antenna, PBS. Better than nothing! We chose site 6, which was large and level and had privacy from foliage behind, but no privacy in front, and not 15 minutes after we got settled, another rig came in and chose site 7 right in front of us, so we wished we’d chosen a different site. Oh well, at least it was a quiet couple! Our loop was only about half full on our first night, a Tuesday, and we noted on our walk with Paisley that the other loop was even more sparsely populated. On Wednesday night two couples checked in after dark and took the sites on either side of us. They did not respect quiet hours, and their kids were running back and forth from site to site and chattering loudly until at least 11 pm, while the adults hung out around the campfire on site 7 (the quiet couple had left, unfortunately). This is one of the only times since we started RVing that we’ve had problems with noise after quiet hours, other than the occasional truck coming or going. The next morning one of the women from the party put signs on all the site posts around us, so we think they were having a reunion or a large group of friends coming in later that day. We were relieved to pull out of there and leave them to it as we would have been totally surrounded. This is the level of activity we expect in state parks on weekends, but we were surprised to have this many folks mid-week after the start of the school year. But the hiking was nice!On our first afternoon in the park, we took a hike on the Purchase Ridge Trail. We had the trail all to ourselves, and it was so pretty, with beautiful fall foliage along the way. I have always been a fan of this pretty evergreen ground cover, and there was lots of it along this trail. The foliage was nice too! At the highest part of the trail, we got a peekaboo view of the natural tunnel that gives the park its name. We'd see it much closer up the following day. The next morning and our only full day in the park, we headed out to hike the rest of the numerous but short trails. The only one we missed on the map below was the Spring Hollow Trail. We would have hiked it, but we simply didn't notice it until I pulled this map up afterwards. Darn! The Lover's Leap Trail is where to go to see the view of the Natural Tunnel from above. The chasm depth is 400 feet. It was a beautiful mid-October day for tunnel gazing and leaf peeping! At the Visitor's Center, we bought a magnet for our board and a sticker for the back of Pearl. We also took in this cool locomotive engine, where I had fun playing train conductor. A busload of school children were just leaving from a field trip, so we had really good timing! At the Visitor's Center we picked up the Tunnel Trail to get a closer look at the natural tunnel. This trail is only a third of a mile but has lots of stairs and switchbacks, so most folks take a chair lift down and back up for a small fee. Naturally, we chose to walk it! Once at the bottom of the chasm, we were actually able to walk right across the rails to a deck where you could get a closer look at the tunnel. Here's the tunnel from the side... and the front! Too bad there wasn't a pedestrian walkway. Here's a smaller, man-made tunnel looking back in the other direction. This is where we were able to cross the tracks. After checking out the tunnel, we took a short spur trail (not shown on the map above) along the creek to the charming Carter Cabin. After climbing all the stairs back up the Tunnel Trail, we hiked the Tunnel Hill Trail (actually much less hilly!) and saw this pretty specimen in full fall color. We stopped for one last look at fall foliage from the Lover's Leap Trail on our way back to the campground. Noisy campers notwithstanding, we had a good time visiting this state park. I am sure it is much busier during the summer, but we had the hiking trails mostly to ourselves, always a plus.
Next up, we enjoy four days in beautiful eastern Tennessee, where the fall foliage is absolutely PEAK.
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After leaving rural West Virginia, we had a change of pace staying in a small city park in Pikeville, Kentucky. This area's big tourist draw is that it is the home of the Hatfield & McCoy feud, and there are signs to that effect all over. We learned that the historic feud began in the Tug River Valley, separating West Virginia and Kentucky. Most of the McCoy family lived in Pike County, Kentucky, while most of the Hatfield kin lived on the West Virginia side. If you want to learn more about the feud, check out Wikipedia. But we weren't here for feuding! We'd planned on a one-night stay in the small RV park nestled in the larger Bob Amos Park but ended up extending for a second night because of the excellent recreational opportunities in this city park. We didn't realize it until we arrived, but the RV Park requires advanced reservations as it is unmanned and has an electronic gate. To get the gate code, you must have a reservation. Fortunately, as long as there are vacancies, you can get a same-day reservation by calling or call or going online right outside the gate in the parking lot, and that is what we did. This park offers full hookups with 50 amp service plus cable TV for $25/night, a nice price.. Check-in time is supposed to be 3 pm, but we were able to get the gate code by calling the local police station and get in at 2 pm. We got a decent 4G LTE signal (2-3 bars) along with many cable TV stations. I especially enjoyed getting to watch some HGTV after not having cable for most of the year! We chose site 21, which backs up to a recreational field and is right next the parking lot. This was fine the first night, but what we didn't know was that the local college has early morning soccer practice in the field on some mornings. On our second morning, we were awakened by folks in the parking lot at 4:45 am and brilliant field lights coming on and lighting up Pearl's bedroom at 5 am! So, our second night was not nearly as restful as the first.
I had to see this for myself but chose to ride my mountain bike. I must admit that one of the hills was so steep I had to get off and walk part of it. But I finally arrived at the top and was able to take in the views. There's a caged overlook with holes in the screening for photos. It's hard to imagine the amount of work this involved! There was some pretty fall foliage and great views of the mountains as well. The other thing that Bob Amos Park offers is a really nice hiking/mountain biking trail. We walked part of it our first night, which convinced us we needed a full day to explore further. Accessing the trail requires hiking or biking up a fairly steep switchback at the start. You can see it behind the sign here. Once up to the trail, you'll find rolling hills through the beautiful woods and a gravel surface. The steeper hills are paved, which is nice; it prevents run-off, I suppose, and also makes it easier to pedal up without spinning out. I am happy to report that no bears nor venomous snakes were encountered! On our full day, I took my mountain bike on the trail. Barry's rotator cuff was still hurting, so he hiked instead and caught a few photos of me riding. This was a short but challenging climb! The trail turned out to be only 2.25 miles one way -- short but sweet. It ends abruptly at the bottom of a very steep, long hill right on a busy road, so there was no way to pedal back up after turning around. I had to walk that one, but all the other hills were pedalable, though challenging. You will get a good interval workout on this trail! There are also two narrower hiking-only trails that branch off from the main bike trail. One goes up to the Cut-Through Overlook, but judging from my bike ride up there, the elevation gain would make this a tough one. Barry walked the Wellness Trail in addition to the bike trail. Here's the regulation running track, which was located right near the bike path trailhead. The track got a lot of use, as did the road through the park. It was nice to see so many folks out walking or running and enjoying the unseasonably warm fall weather. Also near the trailhead were outhouse and moonshine still replicas along with some spooky Halloween decor. On our way out of town, we found a local coin laundry and got the clothes cleaned, one of the less glamorous but necessary chores of RV living. Laundromats are one of my favorite places to catch up on my reading! Next stop: A lovely state park in Virginia!
We've stayed in several campgrounds this year where we so wished we had the kayaks we sold back before we moved to Belize. Most of the paddling friendly parks were on or near lakes. But this one, with sites right on the east fork of Twelvepole Creek, which leads to East Lynn Lake, would have been one of the best for a leisurely paddle, seeking out birds along the creek banks. We saw several campers doing just that, including some of the many children in the campgrounds. They actually rent kayaks here, but with Barry's ailing rotator cuff, paddling was not a possibility for him this time. But all was not lost: there were other recreational activities in the East Fork COE Campground. A short hiking trail, the 1.5 mile East Fork Trail, starts in the campground. This trail is a little steep in sections, beautifully wooded, and covered with lush green moss in parts. When we hiked it, we saw no one else on the trail and no signs that it had been hiked lately. Most of the campers here seem to prefer golf cart travel to walking, judging from this weekend. The paved campground road is also nice for bicycling, though I had to ride solo because of Barry's shoulder. Since I was riding by myself. I didn't venture out of the park onto the winding road with no shoulder, but rode up and down the campground road several times to rack up 20 miles. The terrain was flat to lightly rolling, nothing difficult. Although the road was closed for the season beyond Area 3, I rode around the gate to Areas 4-6, a wonderful ride since no cars were present. The autumn scenery along the road was just glorious! Although this was undoubtedly a beautiful campground with good recreational opportunities, we might not visit again due to the difficult access (narrow, winding roads) in and out of the park.
Up next: We spend two nights in Kentucky in a very different type of park. |
Emily & BarryWe're a long-married, early-retired couple who are currently traveling as nomads with no fixed home base. After years of living in North Carolina (Emily's home state), we spent 18 months living oceanfront on Ambergris Caye, Belize, a year road-tripping the US in a Honda CR-V, a year in Playa del Carmen, Mexico, and are now roaming North America in our 32' motorhome, Pearl, following warm weather whenever possible. Archives
July 2019
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