This was my favorite day of our trip. Nature fills my soul and the natural beauty of Kentucky won be over in a BIG way. The dense wooded areas and moody morning fog put me right in my happy place. This day was all about the natural beauty of Kentucky. I took so many pictures this day, but the beauty was just that good!
Cumberland Falls State Resort Park
As I mentioned yesterday, we decided to stay in a “cottage” at the park for two nights. After our first night, we made our way to DuPont Lodge where we had breakfast. The views were incredible.
Then we made our way down to the falls. These were AMAZING. The park has done a wonderful job at making it really accessible to everyone and we were so grateful to experience this together as a family. The sun was out and we had a perfect rainbow right next to the falls. It was idyllic.
The really cool thing about these falls is that it is the only place in the northern hemisphere where you can consistently see a moonbow (the only other place in the world is at Victoria Falls in Zimbabwe). Moonbows or lunar rainbows occur when there is a bright full moon and a nearly cloudless night. The mist rising from the waterfall creates this beautiful night rainbow.
We tried and tried to figure out our schedules so we could be here on a full moon night but it just didn’t work out. The falls are definitely worth it on their own, but it would have been amazing to see.
Cumberland Gap National Historical Park
We then made our way to the south eastern tip of Kentucky to the Cumberland Gap. In 1893, Frederick Jackson Turner said:
“Stand at Cumberland Gap and watch the procession of civilization, marching single file – the buffalo following the trail to the salt springs, the Indian, the fur-trader and hunter, the cattleraiser, the pioneer farmer – and the frontier has passed by.”
This place was all about the Appalachian Mountains, Dr. Thomas Walker, Daniel Boone, and the settlers who bravely crossed into the unknown. First explorers followed the trails made by bison and American Indians through the Cumberland Gap. More attention was given to the area when Dr. Thomas Walker, who was a surveyor, became the first white man to explore, describe, and document the rout to the gap in 1750.
In 1775, Daniel Boone was commissioned to make a road through the gap and he “opened the west”! He and his men created the Wilderness Trail into Kentucky where it is estimated 200,000 to 300,000 people crossed between 1780 and 1810. As options for transportation increased, the gap was used less and less. During the Civil War both sides viewed the area as strategic and it changed hands several times, but saw no actual battles. It is definitely a place of beauty and history.
The kids had so much fun earning their Junior Ranger badges and dressing up in their colonial clothing.
Pinnacle Overlook
This was such an incredible spot. You get to oversee Kentucky, Tennessee, and Virginia (and we were told on a clear day you can even see North Carolina!). I loved this quote from Myers Coopers, the Governor of Ohio in 1929:
“I cannot conceive of anyone passing this way who will not avail himself of taking this trail to the top of Pinnacle Mountain…there will be many pilgrimages…[to] this historic spot…The beauty of the mountains, the spirit of the pioneer and the patriotic fervor have a unity of appeal found nowhere else in America.”
Iron Furnace and the Wilderness Trail
We then made our way down the mountain and drove through an amazing tunnel that takes you out of Kentucky and into Tennessee.
We took a small hike to the Iron Furnace, which is a 30 foot high stone tower that is all that remains of an iron smelting business that was here from the 1820s to the 1880s. The “Gap” contained everything it needed to make iron to sell to local blacksmiths as well as to be shipped down to Chattanooga, Tennessee.
Mark, Sarah, and Ben decided to go further up the trail so that they could make it to the Daniel Boone Trail and the original path those passing through the Gap were on.
Harland Sanders Café & Museum
Can you say you went to Kentucky and not have Kentucky Fried Chicken?! I have to admit, I think I have only been to KFC once in my life prior to this trip, but it was still fun to go where it all began (we learned Jacob and Ben are big KFC fans!) and learn more about the man behind it all.
It was surprisingly really interesting to visit! Harland Sanders had a difficult life and he was very inspiring with what he did. After many downs, he eventually opened a gas station. He would invite those passing through to sit down with him and eat at his own kitchen table. This was such a success that it grew into a restaurant and then a motel. He even had a full sized motel room model in his café to show his customers what the accommodations were like if they stayed. Genius.
There were so many good “Colonel Quotes to Live By”, but one of my favorites was:
“I’ve only had two rules: Do all you can, and do it the best you can. It’s the only way you ever get that feeling of accomplishing something.”
After dinner, we made our way back to the cottage and had a good, but “damp” night’s sleep 😉
Loved your post.
I am glad – it is fun to relive the trip!