My family tries to get together once a year for a vacation – we usually pick a destination, rent a big cabin and all stay there for 4-5 days. This is the third year we have done this, and we are starting to really get the hang of it. I only have one brother, so it’s always my parents, my brother and his family, and our family- 13 people total. We always bring all of our own food and will try to pick one excursion that we pay for, but the rest of the activities are free.
This year we decided to try a new destination: Red River Gorge, Kentucky! Our family has been to RRG before, but my parents and brother hadn’t been, so it was fun to explore and try out new things!
We all arrived Monday evening, and my Mom prepped Mac n Cheese and hot dogs for dinner, with watermelon for dessert. We explored the house (AMAZING) and enjoyed being out on the deck together. The weather was really beautiful the whole week we were there- it was warm, but not too hot and the mornings even required a sweatshirt!
Tuesday was our first full day at RRG. We were up, got breakfast and headed out by 9 to go for a hike. We needed to find hikes that were fairly easy since we had a three year old, a Grandpa undergoing chemotherapy, and Grandma who had recently broken her toe, and 7 kids under 11- ha. We decided to tackle the Creation Falls/Rock Bridge hike, which was about 1.5 miles. It was strenuous but totally do-able, and the kids could have stayed and played in the waterfall all morning! The weather was PERFECT for hiking, and June is just a really beautiful time to be in the woods!
After our long morning hike, we headed back to the Airbnb for lunch. We kind of all just combined our breakfast/lunch/snack items, and the adults would set out all the lunch pickings and we would just graze off of that. The afternoon was a hang out afternoon and we stayed at the Airbnb the whole time- the house itself was amazing, but since it was basically on a cliff it didn’t have much of a yard and the poison ivy was EVERYWHERE (also, ticks). The kids couldn’t play outside much but they found plenty to do inside and we found ourselves busy enough during the week that Tuesday afternoon was the only long stretch of time that we were there.
I was in charge of dinner on Tuesday evening and I made tacos for everyone. We pretty much always had the TV on to catch the World Cup games- my whole family is really into it, so that was fun!
Tuesday night we enjoyed some s’mores for dessert and sat around the campfire chatting until it was time to put the kids to bed.
We woke up Wednesday morning with more of the same on the schedule: hiking and visiting the Reptile Zoo!
Theo got up at 5am and went on a solo sunrise hike. The pictures were amazing, although I don’t have any from my phone to share. I got up at 7 and went for a run on the gravel road around our Airbnb. I’m never sure when traveling if I will be able to get a run in, but I was surprised that I was able to run 3 miles just by covering the gravel road in the Airbnb neighborhood (pretty sure all the houses in the whole area are Airbnbs- RRG is getting really popular and touristy!)
We left around 9:30 for our hike and went on a hike called Whistlers Arch. This was a really short hike, and kind of an underwhelming arch. There was a big cliff drop-off which made some members of our party uncomfortable, so we didn’t spend too long on that trail. I would recommend this one for a nice sunrise view- you don’t have to hike too far, and it has a great overlook! I don’t recommend for someone who has 7 kids under the age of 11 😉
We left that trail and attempted a different trail that our family had done before, but it was a disaster. There was poison ivy EVERYWHERE- the sides of the trails were all poison ivy, and it was even growing in the middle of the trail. We got to this huge downed tree that you either had to bear crawl under, or balance/climb over, and we decided that trail was NOT for us haha. Instead, we parked ourselves on the banks of the river for an hour or so and just let the kids play in/around the water.
We headed back to the Airbnb for lunch and good rest/nap time (Grandpa and Ori). Once we were all sufficiently rested, we headed out again to check out the local Reptile Zoo. This place was…interesting. It’s hidden off the main road and when you arrive you just see a bunch of shacks. Half the shacks are private, where they house specific reptiles, but half of them are public. They are all specifically climate controlled for the certain animal species that are inside. I guess the guy who owns this place has the biggest collection of reptiles in the world? And he ends up being the person they call if they confiscate illegal snakes that need somewhere to live. There was…a LOT of snakes. It gave me the heebie jeebies, not going to lie. One snake doesn’t bother me, but when I was standing in the building/shack and there were 12 snakes in front of me, 12 behind me, and more to my right and left, I just felt….yeeps. A reptile “intern” came out and gave us a very nice presentation on one of their snakes. She shared a lot of interesting facts and then broke the snake up for a closer view. She also shared a little bit more about how they do venom milking and use the venom for all kinds of useful things- antivenom treatments, menopause medication and even cancer meds. That was fascinating!
The Reptile Zoo was interesting, but I was a little bit disappointed about the price of admission for what we got ($14 adults, $11 kids). We saw all the snakes, sat through the reptile talk and were easily done in less an hour. I just would’ve like more bang for my buck! I also think “reptile zoo” is a misnomer because it was all snakes, except for the alligators and one dragon/lizard guy. It was definitely a fun outing and I do recommend a stop there, but I wish there was more to see for that entry price.
We headed back to the Airbnb and it was my sister in law Kelly’s night to make dinner! She made sloppy joes and they were a hit! We let the kids watch a movie while we kept watching more soccer, and eventually went to bed.
Thursday was our last full day, and we repeated our regular schedule: hiking in the morning, back to the Airbnb for lunch and rest, then an activity in the afternoon.
This time we decided to hike the main attraction at RRG: The Sky Bridge. This is not an easy hike up – although there are multiple various trails up that vary in length and difficulty. You can take a lift up to the top, or you can drive up to a lodge that is about halfway up and hike the rest from the trailhead there. We had originally planned for my parents and maybe the two youngest kiddos to ride the lift up while the rest of us did the hike, but my Dad really wanted to accomplish the hike with us. We are so proud of him for doing this!! Like I said- the hike is not easy by any standards, especially since it’s about 1 mile straight up hills, steps and a fairly large elevation gain. We did it!!
On the way back down, we opted to split our group and one group wanted to do the harder route down, including the Devil’s Staircase (it lives up to it’s name), while the other group took the less strenuous way down.
In the above scenic picture, you can see a rock outcropping/cliff, which is where we ended up hiking to to get down. In the bottom picture of the arch, you can see where I was standing to take the above picture! It’s a little disconcerting being UP on the arch with no edges or railings.
Guess what we did next? Yep- you got it- back to the Airbnb for lunch and a nice afternoon rest! Theo has ample vacation time, but a lot of his job still requires him to answer questions/emails, etc, so he spent a little bit of time working each day.
In the afternoon we headed back out for mini golf. There was only one local mini golf course and it was a lovely course but there was ZERO shade. It was SO hot, I was taking handfuls of water out of their little stream and putting it on Ori’s head because he was turning so red! We split into three different groups and sent the kids off by themselves, then had two different adult groups. I was in our 3rd group, so some people we didn’t know started mini golfing after us. They were so fast and then they would come up right onto our area and just wait, making rude comments and being all annoyed that they had to wait. It was so frustrating. I could not get my ball in the hole, and I was getting so annoyed and hated being watched, so I just decided to stop playing and took a break for a few holes to calm down before joining back in again. Don’t worry- everyone else had fun, and it was a nice course. I DO NOT recommend if it is over 80 degrees and sunny out.
We headed back for our last dinner at the cabin- pork chops and rice, which we literally ate every single last bite of! After dinner we went out for ice cream and the kids enjoyed running around in a big grassy field area. As we were getting ready to go, we realized that we had a FLAT tire- like, rims on the ground flat. Thankfully we had a spare, but it still took awhile to get it changed. Ezra helped Theo change the tire while the rest of us headed back to the cabin and got ready for bed. We stayed up late watching a US soccer game and tried to clean up/pack a bit that evening as we all were planning on leaving fairly early in the morning.
Friday morning we were all up and out the door by 9! We needed to get our tire fixed, but the closest place was about an hour away, so we had to drive SLOWLY to get there. They fixed our tire in about an hour and didn’t even charge us for it- it was such a blessing! We then continued our journey home and arrived around 3pm- still don’t understand how a 3 hour drive took 6 hours, but alas- it did.
It was a lovely time together and I’m so thankful that I was able to get some rest and just feel relaxed – probably for the first time this summer. What a blessing.
If you’ve read this whole thing- bless you! I probably should have split it into several posts, but alas- here we are!
This makes me want to go to RRG! It definitely seems to be a trendy place to go. The young people especially seem to like it- Jacob has been there several times with friends. Your pictures are great! How fun to go with extended family!
Yes- it is wonderful! It’s so great that it’s just a quick drive from our area. It’s like getting Gatlinburg without all the downtown craziness. I will say that in a few years it will probably be much more crowded and touristy- so I highly recommend a trip soon!
That first waterfall hike looks absolutely wonderful! It sounds like a great family vacation… with the inevitable hiccups. That is so wonderful that they fixed the tire for free!
I wish we could have stayed longer on that first hike! it was perfect for our crew- not too easy but not too hard and no crazy cliffs for a little one to fall off!