Well, ain't that a mouthful? I vaguely recalled learning about the Cumberland Gap in my early school years, but I had no idea there was a national park there. The name is a fooler because they threw in the word "historical," but it's part of the NPS just like all the big parks, monuments, battlefields, military parks, historical parks, historic sites, lakeshores, seashores, recreation areas, scenic rivers and trails, and the White House. Believe it or not, most of them are free to visit, and many of them offer camping, even some you'd never think would.
When our route changed from an autumn north-south trajectory to a spring south-north one, we scrapped much of the original plan to visit Smoky Mountain and Shenandoah NPs, but I happened upon this park in a similar geographical area. It was the right travel distance from Asheville and touted abundant hiking opportunities out the door, so it was a slam-dunk choice.
Wilderness Road Campground is a first-come first-served area, and while there are plenty of sites, only two rows offer electricity. Of those, there is only one pull-thru site, and as luck would have it, it was available when we got there. We don't always like pull-thrus, but this one was longer and more level than the other choices. The electric rows filled up pretty quickly for a weekday, but the rest of the camp remained mostly unoccupied for our whole five-day stay.
As with our last stop, there were signs advising caution due to bear activity and, as also with our last stop, we saw no trace of the ursine variety. I fully supported their decision to sleep in a while longer.
CUGA is a long, horizontally skinny park, and if you wanted to spend a couple days backpacking, you could traverse the whole thing in that amount of time. With the aid of the park brochure and a few individual maps from the well-stocked kiosk, we broke it into shorter sections, making for two long and two short hiking days. We started with a walk to Skylight Cave for our requisite arrival day leg-stretcher.
Our first longer hike was to the Tri-State Peak, where Virginia, Tennessee, and Kentucky converge.
The trail from the campground began on the road and then was a pleasant walk to the general Visitor Center area. From there, several pathway choices branched out and around, and we made a long loop to take in a couple of the overlooks and the peak. When you see the words "overlook" and "peak," you can be sure a bit of climbing will be on the schedule.
When the sun reappeared, we drove to the very eastern end of the park to access an area that encompassed another overlook and a cave. The overlook is featured prominently in the park brochure, while the cave is merely a labeled dot on the map. As you're about to see, we think the brochure got it backwards.
The hike up to White Rocks Overlook involved some elevation gain and then a scramble between boulders to reach the viewpoint(s).
The total trek back seemed to take so much longer than the one in, and we were drained by the time we got back to the car, but very glad we stuck it out. It was another grand way to cap off a stay.
Next up: Ohio! My birth state! Family craziness! Best friend time! And more unexpected curve balls than ever before!
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We stayed there way back when we first hit the road, and we were completely unprepared for the elevation gains while hiking. While it’s not exactly the Rockies, 4,000 feet of gain isn’t too shabby….. especially for people like us coming from flat, flat Florida. We had the same reaction to the overlook (“why the hype?”) and gave up before we made it to the sand cave. Looks like mistakes were made….
Anyway, your post reminds me of how much we delighted in the Appalachian spring. Those redbuds are so delicate and lovely when the forest is just coming to life in the spring, and we absolutely love trilliums. Your springtime route north is just as interesting to us as your original itinerary!
Oh, dang, I almost always check my “usuals” when scoping out places, but you were there before we knew you. Now I have to go look at your post about it! I’m sorry you guys didn’t make it to the cave, but I can certainly see how folks wouldn’t bother with almost no info to entice anyone. I think that was our last chance at getting much gain in our hiking for a long while. Time to dust off the bikes! The forest flowers have been a lovely part of spring this year, for sure. I’ve missed the eastern varieties more than I realized! Thank you for the kind words about enjoying the ride-along on our trip north.
Wow, this place looks really pretty! I’m intrigued by the tri state peak… we’ve just visited our first two tri-state points recently but they were just spots on the plains…. mountaintop looks like a much cooler tri-point!
It was beautiful even without all its leaves. Always fun to be in more than one state in a matter of steps, and you’re right, at a summit was a fun place to do it!
I noticed the redbuds right off! It’s always so hopeful when the redbuds burst into bloom when everything else still looks like dead brown sticks. Looks like you got in some really good hiking. That is some serious elevation gain! Not sure if I’ll ever be ready for that again after so much time in Florida, LOL. I am not kidding.
I’m glad your “this better be worth it trail” turned out to be SO worth it! That is a very cool cave. And you even got your next Christmas card photo! 🙂 I can’t wait to read your next post…family craziness and curve balls?!
Aren’t the redbuds just so delicious-looking? They really do perk up the twigginess. We were so glad to get some good weather while we were there because it’s going to be awhile before we’ll see that sort of gain again. Like you, I wonder and worry a bit that we might not or that when we do, it’ll be too damn hard! We’ll just have to look back at our blogs for inspiration of hikes that took effort but had big payoffs. Hard schmard, right?!
Yes, Ohio was a madhouse! A madhouse, I say! 😀
Every time I hear “white nose syndrome,” I envision a bunch of coked out bats. I know, I know… I can’t help it, though!!
Anyway, I agree, that cave looks awesome! Great photo of you down in there and the both of you in front of the waterfall.
It’s nice to see the forest coming to life each spring, which reminds me, are you gonna see any of these cicada monsters or are you far enough west to avoid all that?
Ha! The pictures of them with the syndrome DO look like they were snorting a bit! I’m glad there weren’t any in the big awesome cave. This eastern spring has been a wonderful treat. I like spring everywhere (so many baby animals!!!) but in the east it has such a feeling of relief and joy. I had to look up cicadas — did you know there are maps that show where and when the broods will emerge? Turns out this year is a Brood X year (isn’t that the one that terrorized you?) and fortunately, Wisconsin won’t be bothered with them. Whew!!
Kudos to your impressive hikes! I can’t remember doing a 4000 ft gain elevation, great job! I only remember Cumberland as we passed by there not knowing there is something to enjoy and see. Springtime in the east is my fave with all the exploding of flowers! Something is weird pm upper cp,,et box, Im writing but only seeing a third of the words each line. Maybe its just me or wordpress.