The first half of our trip was all Florida. Warm but flat. So, for the second half we decided to go for more variation with canyons and gorges. Natural tunnel in Virginia was gorgeous even though it required a 1000 foot hike to get down to it! There is a chairlift for those not inclined to hike.

William Jennings Bryant said he thought it should be the 8th wonder of the world. It is a rock tunnel over 850 feet long and 10 stories high carved through a limestone ridge over thousands of years.There is even a train track running through that is still in use.

You could hike out to the platform and look into the tunnel but since it curved and was very long, you couldn't see out the other end. After we climbed back out of the gorge we decided to hike to the highest point in the park, Lover's Leap. Neither of us had any desire to jump!

Lovers Leap

Next, we decided to visit our nation's newest national park, New River Gorge in West Virginia. A bridge was constructed over the gorge in 1974. Prior to that vehicles had to zigzag down one side of the mountain, cross the river on a small bridge and zigzag up the other side.

The previous route

The route today

A crossing that now takes mere minutes used to take 45 minutes! 

We first went to an overlook of the New River but were unable to get close because of a foursome of people who had crossed the barrier to take selfies. After waiting about 10 minutes and dozens of pictures, we decided to take a short hike instead of standing around feeling irritated at their inconsiderate behavior.

We walked through a tunnel of 40 foot high rhododendrons covered with buds. Oh, how I wish I could be here when they were blooming!

The view from the overlook when we were able to visit it.

The next natural wonder was Natural Bridge in Kentucky. This one required a hike up rather than down. But, as we all know, what goes up must come down! The hike up gets you to the bottom of the stone arch where you access a set of very narrow steps and a narrow passage to get to the top. The stone arch is quite wide at the top and you are able to walk across it, The view over the edge is a bit scary though as there are no guard rails. No surprise that Denny refused to join me on the walk across. If he would have we could have gone further on the trail to access Lovers Leap but we settled for hiking back down. As it turned out that was more than enough for my knees that day!

The sign in our campground where we were camped next to a river with rain predicted for the next day. Yikes!
The path up was not an easy one but we made it to the top !

The very narrow stairs to the top of the arch. I was able to convince Denny to climb them!

I ran through this portion because it gave me claustrophobia and I was afraid someone would enter the other side. Very narrow!

What a pair we are, he's afraid of heights and I have claustrophobia! But, we push ourselves and sometimes we are able to overcome. 😁

The view from the top

                  View of the bridge on the way down. See the people on top?

Part of the trail down.

One of the many suspension bridges we crossed this year.

The last day here we hiked to a small hole in the ground (cave?) with a ladder down into it. I climbed down and Denny took my picture from a nearby sinkhole.

Our fun has now come to an end for this year, We are in southern Indiana and will be home in a few days. It's great to be on the road but always good to get back home!