EXPLORE KENTUCKY X KYFORKY

We’re proud to announce we have teamed up with Kentucky For Kentucky to bring our collection of goods to their awesome platform!

Together our goal is to promote Kentucky's rich outdoor legacy and get more people outside. A percentage of the sale of this collection will go to the development of #ExploreKentucky's outdoor equity fund, which will support projects that promote positive health outcomes, inclusivity, diversity, and leadership in Kentucky’s outdoors with focus on Black, brown, immigrant, and refugee populations.

Hike, Paddle, ClimbEKI StaffDecember 6, 2020 Comment

Chimney Top Rock x 3D

I scanned news articles from around the state as well as Ohio, to see how the deaths stack up at Chimney Top. The Forest Service reported that between 1960 and 2005, there were 73 reported deaths in Red River Gorge. 19 of those were via falls from Chimney Top Rock. Over the next 11 years, news outlets report another 4 or 5 from atop the rock, including 3 in 2016 alone. In those 8 years, 12 died in the gorge that were reported in the local news, as well as an additional 2 bodies decayed to just bones were found in the gorge.

Red River Gorge, HikeChristopher MorrisJanuary 8, 2019Hike, hikingComment

Arch Trip Vol 1

Kentucky’s arches and natural bridges have taken thousands and thousands of years to evolve and are still evolving through our lifetimes, though in most cases it is not noticeable.

Hike, Red River GorgeBill FultzJanuary 8, 2019arches, Hike, hiking, red river gorgeComment

Be That Girl

Ladies, stop sitting at home looking through your Instagram feed wishing you were “that girl”. BE that girl! Take your adventure into your own hands. If you let fear of the unknown consume you, then you will never know what greatness lies in the outdoors. I believe by properly preparing yourself, there is no destination that cannot be reached by a group of women, or even a woman trekking out into the wild on her own. By preparing yourself, you CAN DO THIS! It's like this; Know your trail. Know your waterway. Know your limits.

Paddle, HikeShara SumnerJanuary 1, 2018women, Hike, hiking, camp Comments

A Guide To Finding Calm In Red River Gorge

When your body finally tells you to eat, make your way to one of the gorge’s staple spots. Grab pizza at Miguel’s or a burger at Red River Rock House. Fill your empty stomach and forget to count the carbs, the calories, the grams of sugar in your Ale 8. Meet the people seated with you — the group of businessmen from California, the RRG regulars, the guys who live a neighborhood over from you.

Escaping the Wintertime Blues at Carter Caves Resort State Park

There is a saying that there is no bad weather, only inappropriate clothing. This is how I feel about hiking.

HikeLana RichardsonJanuary 11, 2017Carter Caves, feature Comments

Breaks Interstate Park Re-bolting Initiative

From December 6 -January 1 we’re donating $500 from the the sales of our EKI Boot and EKI No.3 Decals to help match a grant from the Access Fund to the Southwest Virginia Climbers Coalition to re-bolt several routes with modern hardware at our partner organization Breaks Interstate Park.

Fall Color Weekend at Pine Mountain Settlement School

Tucked into a beautiful valley on the north side of Pine Mountain in Harlan County, this 100 year-old boarding-school-turned-education-and-retreat-center is worth the effort it takes to get to its remote location.

The Explore Kentucky Must List: Waterfalls (Pt 2)

Greetings fellow waterfallers and explorers to the latest installment of the Explore Kentucky Must List: Waterfalls! Last time, in Part 1, we visited 5 waterfalls which stretched from outside of Berea to the Daniel Boone National Forest a few miles downstream from Cumberland Falls. Here, with Part 2 we’re going to pick up with where we left off and begin with The Big Falls itself, Cumberland Falls, and make our way into the less visited Big South Fork National River and Recreation Area and then back into the Daniel Boone National Forest. So take a seat and let’s continue on our journey to Kentucky's beautiful falling waterways...

Birding for Millennials

There are many ways to walk on a trail. There are times when I walk in order to talk with a friend, get to know a person. Other times, I walk by myself, wondering as I wander like the Kentuckian folksinger John Jacob Niles. When, at 26 years old, a misplaced Kentuckian living in Montana, I learned how to “bird,” I found yet another way to walk, a way where my tinkering mind quieted, and I could hold each present moment, lingering in the forest, in the meadow, by the wetland, with my binoculars fixed to my eyes, watching wild birds do their secret magic of flying, full of hollow bones, covered in a quilt of feathers.

Jones-Keeney Wildlife Management Area Group Hike

About a quarter mile down the trail we cross Buttercup Hill, which is just past peak bloom. We turn right down a side path to our first point of interest, Jones-Keeney Natural Bridge which is only about ten feet high at the top with an arch. Ducking under the rock slab, Shara shows us the chamber behind the arch which is backed by a 15-foot rock wall with a small waterfall and a couple of cairns left by previous hikers. Mosses and ferns cover many of the rock faces. The place is magical.

HikeVince MedlockJune 13, 2016Western Kentucky, Dawson Springs, Trail Town, Hiking, hike, kentucky Comments

Changing Our equilibrium, One Hike At A Time

You might notice, that I mentioned earlier, that I had a chance at changing my own equilibrium. I have changed. I have Melinda Walker and EKI Director's Gerry James to thank for it. You see when I started BeintheWater my intentions were to inspire people and to help make changes in our community. I fell prey to my own comfort zone issues. You see, I felt like if I couldn't create a huge event or undertaking, that it wasn't worthy of the effort. I wasn't heeding my own advice. I wanted the mountain in one big step. I had forgotten my own personal motto. "Be Water, Matthew. Be Water." I needed to focus on the raindrops and not worry about where the river merged with the ocean.

On Hiking

Writing about the great outdoors is incredibly intimidating when you haveThoreau's Walden and Leopold’s Sand County Almanac at your bedside stand. But here it goes, and I’ll do my best not to murder their legacy with this page out of my sketchbook…

A few months before moving to Kentucky....

The most memorable hike of my life

I turned the video camera on and acted as if it was set up for a remote picture. She hardly even notices the constant clicking of my camera, so she was still oblivious. I went over to Lois Jean and held her in my arms then asked her the magic question

HikeJosh PattonApril 18, 2016Kentucky, National Park Service, Virginia, Get outdoors, love Comments

The Explore Kentucky Must List: Waterfalls (Pt. 1)

Nestled between the bourbon distilleries and horse farms of Kentucky is a landscape of unbridled beauty where far below the soaring mountains and towering natural arches water flows through the tributaries, creeks and rivers. One would not realize it, but on these many waterways Kentucky has hundreds of waterfalls scattered throughout the state

Must List, HikeBill FultzMarch 30, 2016Waterfalls, kentucky, Cumberland Falls, Must list Comments

Cumberland Falls State Resort Park: Our Take

One place I had never been and one of Kentucky’s largest attractions is Cumberland Falls located within the Big South Fork area of Daniel Boone National Forest on the Cumberland River. The falls is the largest in the state, one of the largest in the region, and it separates both McCreary and Whitley County, Kentucky. The state park resort Dupont Lodge is the key place to stay when visiting this nearly 1,700 acre park and has a very warm and friendly environment.

Blanton Forest Adventure: Day One

As we met one another early Saturday morning, it quickly became apparent, that this was going to be a great event. The level of enthusiasm that Gerry brought to the gathering was contagious. Everyone was smiling and sharing a little bit about themselves. Rather quickly everyone was making informal introductions as they seemed eager to meld into a group.

Spring Break: Red River Gorge "The Final Day"

When we left camp we headed up to Sky Bridge to catch the beautiful scenery before the crowds came. Sky Bridge is a natural arch formation that can be walked across. It's one of many arches within the Red River Gorge National Geological area and Clifty Wilderness and is very similar to the larger arch Natural Bridge just outside of the gorge in Natural Bridge State Park. The biggest difference between Sky Bridge and Natural Bridge is that Sky Bridge is much higher while Natural Bridge is much wider and longer.

Spring Break-Red River Gorge "Day without signal"

Today we got to do a bit more than we had on the entire trip and we found a flushable bathroom at the Gladie Ranger Station. That's a good place to be near because you can go in wash up with warm water and use a clean bathroom. We got up late but still managed to get quite a bit done. We started by going to Chimney Top Rock, we took some cool pictures and then started driving through the Red River Gorge scoping out some campsites.

HikeMichael CheserMarch 10, 2016flyfishing, kentucky, red river gorge, Spring Break

Kentucky's Ancient Forest: An adventure in Blanton Forest State Nature Preserve

Far off the highway in Eastern Kentucky’s Appalachian mountains, Blanton Forest State Nature Preserve is home to the largest known old-growth forest in the state. Old growth forests are rare in the eastern United States. Their trees die from rot, disease, and windfall, rather than from crosscut or chainsaw.

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