APRIL 2023

Kentucky’s Arches

Where: eastern Kentucky

Directions: south of Interstate 64

Good to Know:  

* Dogs are not allowed in designated swimming areas.

* Dogs are welcome on the trails in Mammoth Cave National Park but not underground.

Why so good:   

Kentucky is a place that cares about its natural arches. And with good reason. Mantle Rock, the largest rock bridge east of the Rocky Mountains at 154 feet, is here. The Bluegrass State is considered to have the most such natural wonders of any state east of the Mississippi River, with more being documented every year. Currently there are more than 2,600 Kentucky arches listed in the National Arch and Bridge Society database with an opening of at least three feet. Thousands more that are smaller can be spotted in a single canine hike. Yes, nature has been very busy in these limestone and sandstone hills.

THE NATIONAL FOREST.

The Treaty of Fort Stanwix in 1768 during the French and Indian War triggered a rush to settlement of this wilderness, then part of the great Virginia Colony, that stretched to the Mississippi River. The most prominent pioneer was Daniel Boone from Berks County in Pennsylvania, thanks in part to an autobiographical narrative he published in 1784. After the American Revolution, veterans received land grants for their service and by 1796 nearly a quarter of a million people came into the area on the Wilderness Trail, little more than a horse path. Some mined coal, some mined saltpeter necessary to manufacture gunpowder, and some logged but most farmed small plots of cleared land. When the Daniel Boone National Forest was established in 1937, 98% of the dwellings were of log and pole construction and the average number of acres on a farm in cultivation was only 17. There are more than 500 miles of trails in the 700,000-acre national forest that occupies a 140-mile slice of eastern Kentucky. The great variety of trails that shift from flat and easy to steep and twisting help spread out the five million annual visitors. Save for the designated swimming areas, your dog is welcome everywhere in the Daniel Boone National Forest. The Sheltowee Trace National Recreation Trail courses through the entire forest for 269 miles. The footpath, blazed in white turtle markers (Sheltowee is the Indian name given Boone when he visited the area meaning “big turtle”), connects the major day-use areas as it visits deep canyons, long ridgetops and craggy rimrock cliffs.

THE NATIONAL NATURAL LANDMARK.

The first destination for many canine hikers in the Daniel Boone National Forest is the Red River Gorge where 300-foot sandstone cliffs and overhangs are decorated with grotesque rock formations. There are more than 100 natural stone arches in the area large enough to be catalogued. Numerous rock shelters and arches can be found along the driving tour of the Clifty Wilderness in the Cumberland District. Easy explorations include the Natural Arch Trail that reaches a bridge of sandstone more than 100 feet across and seven stories high and the Nathan McClure Trail along the shores of Cumberland Lake. The lake is graced by towering sandstone cliffs.

THE NATIONAL PARK.

Not named for extinct wooly elephants but rather the length of its passageways, Mammoth Cave is by far the longest known cave system in the world. There may be no traces of mammoths in the vast underground world but archeologists have unearthed evidence of human occupation in Mammoth Cave from as far back as 4,000 years ago. In the early days of the country, Mammoth Cave was used commercially to produce saltpeter needed to manufacture gunpowder and in 1941 the cave was protected as a national park. In 1981, Mammoth Cave was named a World Heritage Site. Your dog won’t be able to sniff around the 336 miles of underground passages in Mammoth Cave but there are more than 70 miles of trails above ground to explore in the park. A variety of leg-stretching hikes less than two miles are available around the Visitor Center, including the Green River Bluffs Trail that snakes through thick woods to a promontory above the Green River. For prolonged canine hiking head for the North Side Trails. A half-dozen mid-length day hikes launch into the dark hollows and hardwood forests from the Maple Spring Trailhead (North Entrance Road). This labyrinth of trails cuts through rugged terrain that has been left in its natural state. In the Big Woods (Little Jordan Road), you can hike the White Oak Trail through one of the last remaining old growth forests in Kentucky. Along Highway 255 (the East Entrance road) is a small parking lot for a short trail to Sand Cave. For several weeks in the 1930s, this remote section of woods was the most famous spot in America. A local cave explorer named Floyd Collins got trapped in the cave and the nation became fixated on the rescue efforts that were meticulously detailed in newspapers and radio reports. Rescuers were ultimately unsuccessful in freeing Collins from a leg-pinning rock. The incident spawned books and a thought-provoking movie starring Kirk Douglas, Ace In The Hole. The small entrance of Sand Cave is wired off today and there is little to remind visitors of the drama that once gripped America here.