Every fall we spend a weekend camping at the Natural Bridge State Park campground and hiking around the Red River Gorge. It is a treasured family weekend that always leaves us with memories for a life time. This Fall we had a fantastic campsite, and the weekend started out like a dream but soon turned into a National Lampoon-style camp out. We arrived to clear, sunny skies. We set up camp, cooked some dinner over the fire, had a restful night in a dry tent, took a kayak ride, and of course hiked the Red. But on the second evening things went sideways. To begin with one of our flashlights broke! It was so difficult to see in the dark. If you’ve ever been camping before you’ll know just how important a good flashlight is! Since coming home we’re on the lookout for some new ones and the EDC flashlight review on this website has been useful. Later on that night, Mama took a spill and sprained an ankle, torrential rains moved in from a hurricane down south, and we woke up a bit soggy due to leaky seams. We did start to think about looking at RV’s when we got back after having a conversation about them with another family. They were talking about how easily accessible batteries for rvs are which makes them a great asset to have if you want to go travelling, but your battery’s flat!
All in all we still had an awesome weekend. We got to do more eating out than we usually do on a camping trip, and for our last night we ended up in a Natural Bridge State Park cottage that our kids quickly rated five stars after sleeping in a rain drenched tent for a night. We laughed, we played games, we cooked our dinner over a fire, we appreciated nature, and we had fun TOGETHER. So all in all it was still a trip to remember.
Camping and Hiking at Natural Bridge State Park and Red River Gorge
Hanging around the Campsite (before the rains):
Campfire Packets for Dinner is our go-to for cooking over the fire:
Red River Gorge Restaurants:
We went out to eat quite a few times on this trip because of the rains, thankfully there are quite a few fantastic places to dine at the Gorge!
Games and snacks at the Sky Bridge Station while waiting out the rain:
Farm to table style dinners at Red River Rockhouse:
And pizza at Miguel’s…a Red River institution:
Natural Bridge State Park Cottage:
We ended our trip in a cottage at the Natural Bridge State Park and it was wonderful to have a roof over our heads.
Hopefully next year’s trip will be a little less rainy!
