Red River Gorge Backpacking Map: $14

The Power Loop Hike…need more explanation? This favorite 9.25 mile loop has 4 ‘ups’ or creek-to-ridge ascents, which is 1800 feet of cumulative ‘up’ elevation change. If you finish it in 4 hours, you’re walking good; in 3 hours you’re marching; and in 2 hours you’re smokin’. About a 1/3 of the loop is on the Sheltowee Trace. This is one of the best loops in the Daniel Boone NF.

Beginning at Gray’s Arch trailhead, proceed to the arch and down to King’s Branch. After crossing this small stream, climb up the steepest section of the trail to Rush Ridge. On the backside of the rodge, you’ll hike down Second Story Rockhouse (a double stacked rockhouse), through Corrosion Cove known for the unique erosion features, and cross Rush Branch. Continue up past Corpse Rock (a rotten outcropping), over Signature Rock (please don’t carve in rocks), and then down to Chimney Top Creek. From there hump up to Koomer Ridge, then Buck Ridge, and finally back to Gray’s Arch Trailhead. For a more taxing trip, attach the 2-mile D. Boone Hut/Martin’s Fork loop to the end of the trail.

Camping sites exist in abundance along the loop; however, you might find crowded sites near the trail during busy weekends. Try crossing a stream or move further down the ridge to find your private camp. Notable side trails to scenic views and campsites can be found near Pinch ‘Em Tight Ridge (out to Hanson’s Point) and Second Story.

Camping considerations: This is a fee area. Visitors leaving cars overnight will need to purchase a pass at local businesses and outdoor shops. Camping in rockshelters is prohibited forestwide. You can camp away from the arch, rockshelters, streams, and trails. You will need to observe the USFS backcountry camping rules.

Red River Gorge Backpacking Map: $14

Auxier Ridge is one of the great hiking areas in the Red River Gorge. Hikers have two loop options here. First, you can hike out the Ridge on trail #204, passing some excellent scenic overlooks, and return on Trail #202, Courthouse Rock trail. The second option is to return by way off Auxier Branch Trail, #203, with a side trip to Double Arch. This second option uses the closed Tunnel Ridge Road to connect back to the trailhead.

Big South Fork Trail Map: $12

Hike the scenic crossroads of the John Muir Trail and Sheltowee Trace. Rock Creek Loop is a 6.6-mile loop in our Big South Fork Guide. Half of this loop follows the cool waters of Rock Creek, a trout stream with small stretches of swift water and deep pools for summer refreshment.

Hikers weave through a forest dominated by old, stately Hemlock and American Beech trees with grassy, wildflower areas along the stream bank. The trail is a rugged footpath with a bridge across Massey Branch. Numerous backcountry campsites along the loop offer great weekend backpacking options with side trail options into Pickett State Park and the Daniel Boone National Forest.

Red River Gorge Backpacking Map: $14

This well-used and maintained trail is the first (or last) segment of the challenging 10-mile Power Loop Hike. Starting at Gray’s Arch trailhead parking (map) walk a short quarter-mile double-width foot trail to an intersection with the Martin’s Fork Trail. Continue to the right passing the small field on Butterfly Hill. About a mile into the hike, you’ll find a few ridge top campsites west of the trail. An unmapped trail follows a narrow ridge above Left Flank climbing area.

The arch and west rockhouse offer some of the biggest views under canopy in Red River Gorge. You can easily scramble around the boulders to find a compelling photograph. Since the arch is close to the trailhead and has great scenic attraction, you’ll probably enjoy the company of fellow hikers and photographers.

Camping considerations: This is a fee area. Visitors leaving cars overnight will need to purchase a pass at local businesses and outdoor shops. Camping in rockshelters is prohibited forestwide. You can camp away from the arch, rockshelters, streams, and trails. You will need to observe the USFS backcountry camping rules.

Red River Gorge Backpacking Map: $14

The best trail in the Clifty Wilderness Area. Starting at Rock Bridge trailhead and hiking down Swift Camp Creek as it cuts a steep, narrow gorge, you’ll experience the least-visited area in the Red River Gorge. Trail often skirts cliff edges and side trails wind down to the creek and cool water in the summer heat. Nice campsites exist near Pooch’s Turtle Falls, Don Juan’s Garden, and Steamboat Rock.

Scenic areas you’ll visit are Hell’s Kitchen (a narrow slot canyon), Mossy Rocks, Pooch’s Turtle Falls and the side trail to Turtle Arch, Tofu Rock, Sausage Wall (a huge, plump rack of rock), Purgatory Bend (a frustrating bend in the creek), Don Juan’s Garden (a most romantic area), and Steamboat Rock (recall the days of old below this slab of rock in the creek).

Two hiking loops cap the ends of this trail and provide access to ridgetop parking. Wildcat Creek trail is a 7-mile loop (including a mile-long road walk) and connects Steamboat Rock with the Rough & Swift Camp Creek trails. Rock Bridge Loop is a 1.5-mile loop that passes the only arch across a major stream and nearby Creation Falls, a pleasant, petite waterfall.

Camping considerations: This is a fee area. Visitors leaving cars overnight will need to purchase a pass at local businesses and outdoor shops. Camping in rockshelters is prohibited forestwide. You can camp away from the arch, rockshelters, streams, and trails. You will need to observe the USFS backcountry camping rules.

You can check out a public draft here: http://www.outrageGIS.com/grsm/draft and please tell us what you think in the below comments section.

New Features:

• 1:50,000 scale, which is 140% enlargement of the Trails Illustrated map
• 100-foot contour interval with 500-foot index contours
• Canopy cover type indicating deciduous, evergreen, shrub, grass, and open areas
• 1-minute Geographic coordinate grid for GPS
• Elevations for trail intersections and other points of interest
• Mileage shown between trail intersections and campsites
• Updated official trails and campsites
• Unique hillshading shows topography clearly

Cumberland Gap Map
Distance: 16 Miles round-trip from the Civic Park trailhead at Ewing
Difficulty: +++
Scenic Views: ++++
Elevation Relief: 2,000ft ^^
Ownership: Cumberland Gap, NPS

Cumberland Gap Trail Map: $12

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Great Smokies Trail Atlas: $16

As you drive from the Sugarlands Visitor Center on Newfound Gap Road, you’ll catch glimpses of the Chimney Tops, a summit outcropping of tough, erosion resistant metamorphic rock. Originally deposited as sedimentary rock, such as shale, sandstone, and siltstone over 500 million years ago, the rocks that make the mountains here first experienced metamorphosis becoming a hard, slate-type rock, and then mountain building forces to form the folded and faulted Appalachians, with peaks as high as the Rocky Mountains. Today, after 200 million years of erosion, Chimney Tops stands at 4,800 feet and roughly a 1,400 vertical foot climb from the trailhead below. As you walk and climb along the last quarter-mile of the ridge, you’ll clearly see the bedrock tilting down to the right, evidence of the great tectonic forces that thrust up the mountains that you’ll admire around you from this inspiring prominence.

The name the Cherokee Indians gave Chimney Tops, was Forked Antler. As you scan the ridge from valley overlooks, you can easily imagine the shape of a deer’s antler. The first 3/4 mile of this hike follows Road Prong, a stream that reaches the crest line of the Smokies. If you continue up Road Prong trail, you’ll hike one of the oldest trails in the area. Long used as an Indian path through the mountains, the path was expanded during the Civil War to move troops through the Smokies connecting Smokemont, North Carolina with Gatlinburg, Tennessee. The road was called the Oconaluftee Turnpike and it passed through Indian Gap at the summit. Today the summit is marked with the Appalachian Trail and Indian Gap is called Luftee Gap.

A note about climate and slope in the mountains. The high mountains in the area form steep, thinly soiled slopes, which are historically prone to landslides after extended periods of heavy rain. You’ll see many scars and debris fields from previous landslides as you hike to the summit. And the Smokies know plenty about rain: the summit line receives on average more precipitation anywhere east of the U.S. mountain west coast.

Because of the elevation, the temperature is similar to Canada, but because of the relief (over a mile above surrounding foothills), the precipitation pattern is more typical marine, creating colder and wetter conditions. Because of the proximity to Gulf and Atlantic tropical air masses, summer storms, especially remnants of hurricanes, can produce torrential rain events. These storms increase flash flooding and landslide hazards. In the late winter, polar air masses from the north can create an upslope flow forcing up moisture rich air and produce heavy snowfall. With an average of 5-8 inches of rain per month, streams can be difficult to cross anytime of the year. Please contact the park service before any backcountry trip.

Cave Run Lake Trail Guide: $12

Imagine the scene around Clear Creek Iron Furnace in the 1830’s, the trailhead for this hike. Scores of men were clearing old growth trees by acres a week, cutting limestone from the creeks, and hauling iron ore rock from neighboring hillsides to fuel one of largest iron furnaces in Kentucky. Iron was produced roughly nine months out of the year. The process was a laborious affair, but the profit was great, until much larger deposits of iron ore were found in the southern Appalachians and around the Great Lakes.

The cut wood was slowly burned in dirt covered pit to make charcoal. The furnace was ‘charged’ from the top in layers of ore, charcoal, and limestone and when full, the furnace was stoked with forced air until the charcoal was white-hot and the whole furnace roared tremendously and blasted heated air, flames, and a shower of sparks from the top. That’s when the furnace was in blast and slowly molten iron would flow from furnace bottom and fill trenches of sand to make pig iron ingots. The iron ore found in rocks is basically rust and is rendered as elemental iron in series of chemical reactions in the furnace.

Today you can still see many aspects of the furnace operation. The hand-cut limestone furnace still stands. Glass and slag are found downstream. The fuel for charcoal of course grows around abundantly. The limestone outcrops as you ascend the trail south from furnace. The Sinks is a sinkhole in the limestone bedrock produced by the slow process of erosion. Atop the southern extent of this trail, you’ll find the same rugged sandstone the produces the great rockshelters in the Red River Gorge. In fact, if you continue hiking the Sheltowee Trace south, you’ll travel through the heart of the Gorge.

Furnace Arch is a low broad arch that resembles the iron furnace in shape. The sandstone outcrops in the area offer a few campsites, though no water along the ridge top. The scenic quality of this area, with blooming rhododendron against craggy boulders, is worth a day of exploration.