A Story About Life and Living It

Following our wonderful hike and a night well spent in Virginia we headed out to sample the far eastern extent of Kentucky. The highpoint of Kentucky is so close to the border that the road to access it turns off of the main road between the two signs that proclaim "Welcome to Kentucky" and "Welcome to Virginia". The mountain top is owned by a coal company and is full of large telecommunications towers. Not the most picturesque view, but diversity is what makes these highpointing trips so entertaining.

A few years back the summit tower was deemed unsafe, but instead of taking it down they just removed the bottom few flights of stairs:

The above picture was taken very carefully so as to avoid the large array of antennae just out of the picture to the right.

The USGS marker:


Finally, after leaving the highpoint, called Black Mountain, by the way, we drove past the official "Welcome to Kentucky" sign. Lani, as a horse fanatic, had waited her entire life to make it to the land of horses. This trip didn't exactly include the Kentucky Derby, but, for those who don't already know, one of the stipulations of her accepting my marriage proposal was that I had to take her to the Kentucky Derby one day. Kentucky has not seen the last of us.


We really didn't have many pictures of Kentucky, so I just threw this up here. I'm just super glad that they didn't try this on a real bear. That may not have gone over so well.


On our way out of Kentucky we stopped by the Cumberland Gap National Historic Park. We didn't have a whole lot of time, so we drove up to the top of the lookout point and admired the view. In the picture you can see the gap itself as it starts near the left, just above the railing and continues to the right. Basically, the Cumberland Gap opened up settlement of America's heartland to early settlers, thanks to the work of Daniel Boone who put in the Wilderness Road with his crew of workers.



They have a fine museum there that starts with the Native Americans and goes on through early settlers (circa 1800) and then up to the establishment of National Parks and so on. Here, I'm trying (and failing miserably) to be a bear.


We enjoyed Lani's first trip to Kentucky, but something tells me the next one will be even more exciting.