Cumberland Gap

America’s 1st “Gateway to the West”!

Where we both walked in the footsteps of Daniel Boone along the Wilderness Road and over the Cumberland Gap. We also hiked up to the peak where Kentucky, Tennessee, and Virginia borders meet. And we camped in our 11th National Park Campground! That’s 3 new NP Campgrounds in a month.

Visiting & hiking (~18.5 miles) in 1 new National Park Site (5/5 Kentucky NP):

Cumberland Gap National Historical Park (#324), a “hiking park” we were told, with 85 miles of trails and 14,000 acres of wilderness (in 3 states). It has been protected, however, because the Cumberland Gap was the first great gateway to the west. The Wilderness Road was first the path of bison, Native Americans, and longhunters, before 300,000 pioneers crossed the Appalachians to settle America. During the Civil War, control passed back and forth between the Union and the Confederacy. We managed to visit all the “highlights”, except Hensley Settlement, open only in the summer.

Tuesday we started at the Visitor Center (in Kentucky) and a ranger drove us (The Monster is too long for the road) up to Pinnacle Overlook (Kentucky & Virginia). In the afternoon, we hiked (Kentucky & Virginia) over the Cumberland Gap, to the Tri-State Marker and Fort McCook, and back by the Wilderness Road). We stopped at the Iron Furnace (Tennessee) on our way back to camp (in Virginia), a ~4 mile hiking day.

Wednesday was a no drive day, “just” a ~6-mile hike from the campground to Gap Cave & back. Then yesterday…8.75 miles, 2,133′ elevation gain, at the northeast end of the park. A mile or so of the hike was along the ridge line, which constitutes the Kentucky/Virginia border. Beautiful view at our lunch stop at the White Rocks Overlook. We deserved our dinner out after all that…6.75 hours (5.75 of it actually hiking)!

Cumberland Gap NHP-Pinnacle Overlook, with the Cumberland Gap Saddle in the lower center part of pic
Cumberland Gap NHP-Gail at the Cumberland Gap, on the Wilderness Road
Cumberland Gap NHP-Remnents of Fort McCook, one of several small Civil War forts around the Gap
Cumberland Gap NHP-Iron Furnace
Cumberland Gap NHP-hiking along the Wilderness Road Trail to see Gap Cave…the easiest hiking day, despite the 6 miles
Cumberland Gap NHP-Gap Cave, the little bit open this time of year
Cumberland Gap NHP-Hiking up to White Rocks Overlook…some white rocks seen in the distance
Cumberland Gap NHP-Final scramble up to White Rocks Overlook
Cumberland Gap NHP-View from White Rocks Overlook
Cumberland Gap NHP-scramble down from White Rocks Overlook was WORSE!
Cumberland Gap NHP-Took the Ridge Trail loop down for a longer but less steep hike back

Basic Title

One last note. As might be expected, the Wilderness Road became a road for cars in the 20th century. What is less expected, is that the Cumberland Gap Tunnel, a twin-bore, 4,600-foot-long highway tunnel on U.S. Route 25E connecting Kentucky and Tennessee (opened October 1996), began in 1991 to replace a dangerous, winding section of road and to restore the historic Cumberland Gap passage. COOL!