Leapfrog 2 Arch is an arch that, to the best of my knowledge, had never been properly documented until I took this image. The arch is located on a shelf about 15-20 feet up the cliffside. There really isn’t a great way to get up to the top of it, so I ended up having to improvise a bit.
What really never ceases to amaze me is how many people there are that are unaware of the grand natural beauty of the Bluegrass State. Ask most people about the waterfalls our state has to offer and you’ll get a lot of the same, obvious answers. Pretty much everyone knows of Cumberland Falls. A few more will be able to name Creation Falls and possibly Dog Slaughter Falls. As of late, some others, such as Copperas Falls, have become more well-known. The list really doesn’t extend far beyond these, however. What many don’t realize is that the Bluegrass State is full of an abundance of amazing waterfalls.
A slew of newly (re) discovered arches in the Laurel County portions of the Daniel Boone National Forest were recently submitted to the Kentucky Arch Database. Not only did the locations of these arches need to be confirmed for the sake of the integrity of the database, but there was some discrepancies with the location of one of the submitted natural bridges. I decided to set off into the forest to solve the mystery once and for all!
It’s finally time for another adventure! This time around I decided to get out into the Gorge to enjoy some of the fall colors and to hunt for some new to me arches.
Over the past few months, I have spent a fair bit of time out on Auxier Ridge in the Red River Gorge portion of Kentucky’s Daniel Boone National Forest. Despite the area featuring some of the best views in the entire Bluegrass, I rarely spend this much time out there during the warmer months since it’s quite the popular area. This year, however, has been an exception.
I really enjoy abandonment photography, though I don’t practice it nearly as much as I do landscape photography. Every once in a while, however, I like to throw my camera in the car and just drive around to see what I can find. Sometimes you come away with something and sometimes you get completely skunked, but that’s just part of the fun.
I recently did one of these drives and came away with a few locations that I thought I’d share. Enjoy!
I’m sure by now it’s no surprise that I’m addicted to visiting the many waterfalls that can be found across Kentucky. One of the most common questions I get asked when I share an image of a waterfall is how you can get to the particular falls. Like many landscape photographers these days, I rarely give out specific information about where a photo was taken. This is to help protect these areas from abuse and overcrowding.
Something I haven’t done a whole lot of is exploring and photographing abandoned buildings, an activity often referred to as urban exploring or urbex. It’s a subject that has always interested me, I just haven’t had much chance to practice it myself. As such, I jumped on board when I was invited to go explore an abandoned high school with some friends.
I got 2019 started off right by going to check out two spots in Kentucky’s Red River Gorge that looked curious on LiDAR. In fact, they looked an awful lot like waterfalls! This trip resulted in us documenting two new waterfalls in the Red River Gorge.
If you haven’t noticed yet, I have a minor obsession with visiting and photographing waterfalls. To be honest, it could probably be classified as a sickness at this point! As such, I recently went to scout out some of the off-trail waterfalls in Kentucky’s Mammoth Cave National Park.
Kentucky is just packed full of natural arches. In fact, it’s ranked either second or third in the United States for the most natural arches. We are behind only Utah and possibly Arizona. East of the Mississippi, however, we are ranked number one!
It has been a few weeks now since my last trip to the Great Smoky Mountains, but I’d like to take a moment to share the trip with you.