For Bruce's birthday, I gave him a hiking trip to Cumberland Falls State Park in the Daniel Boone National Forest in southwestern Kentucky. We've been to several of Kentucky's parks on the western side of the state, because it's only a 3-4 hour drive. But I always wanted to try out the parks on the eastern side, because they are so close to the Appalachian and Blue Ridge Mountains. This is the lodge we stayed in - an old historic building that sits on top of a bluff overlooking the Cumberland River.
This is the view from the back patio of the lodge. The first day, we took a hike along the river, which meant we had to climb down, down, down and then back up, up, up when we got finished. On the bright side, I earned my "100 Floors" FitBit badge for this hike.
Along the trail we saw the Cumberland Falls (hence the name of the park). I was able to catch a rainbow in this photo reflecting off the water spray. They say that when the moon is full, you can see a "moonbow" at night. When we were there, the moon was about two-thirds full and we might have been able to see the moonbow, but the park ranger told us they'd seen a black bear hanging around the lodge. I didn't want to see a moonbow badly enough to risk running into the bear. Supposedly he sleeps during the day and roams around at night.
The trail along the river was pretty, but really rocky. We had to do a lot of scrambling in places to climb over those huge boulders.
The second day we decided to switch to a trail through the woods that went up to the fire tower. It was still a steep climb, but the trail was a lot smoother.
To reward ourselves for all that rigorous exercise, we went into town for dinner and ate at the original Kentucky Fried Chicken in Corbin, Kentucky.
They've turned this particular KFC into a little mini-museum complete with a replica of the original kitchen and dining room, but the food is the same as any other KFC. After hiking for 2 days, our fried chicken and biscuits tasted really good.
