Gap Cave and the Cumberland Gap

We continue to get spoiled with special treatment here at Cumberland Gap National Historical Park. Following the advice of our new friends, we made reservations for the Gap Cave tour. Often the afternoon tour gets rained out, so we went in the morning and were the only two on the tour. So Victoria (who we had met at the feast last night) was our private tour guide.

She is an intern with a major in Geology, and she was very knowledgeable about the cave and its formations. She was telling us about cave straws--the tiny stalactites hanging from the cave ceiling that are hollow and are often filled with water. She just told us about the echoing sound they make when that water will randomly empty out of one of those tiny straws. As if on cue, we heard the frog-like sound she just described. Now that's a good tour guide! 

Each tour must have two park employees, so we also got to hear some of Keith’s interesting stories about the cave. He was also good about pointing out cave wildlife. This cave salamander was not happy with being picked up, and he was emitting a defensive sticky slime that stuck Keith's fingers together, and would make him sick if he got it in his eyes or mouth.

This cave is not lighted, so it was difficult to take pictures. But if Keith and Victoria illuminated it with their fancy flashlights, we could get a photograph. Because we had two rangers helping us, we even got a picture with Victoria and Denisa standing beside a column to show its size while Keith was illuminating it for us. What a great team!

We think these large columns look like melting ice cream. Even though the cave isn’t cool enough to freeze ice cream, we certainly enjoyed its 54-degree temperatures in the middle of this hot day.

Once privately owned, the cave was harmed by some of the practices of the previous owners. Lights were installed that changed the cave’s natural habitat. Cigarettes were smoked at the dances and weddings that were regularly held inside the cave. Graffiti was painted on the walls. Some of that graffiti were names of civil war soldiers that were guarding the cave in the 1860’s.

With 143 wet steps to go up and down inside the cave, it wasn’t an easy half-mile walk in the dark. There were also tight corridors, as well as sections that were limited in height that were appropriately named.

Having private tour guides also meant we had our own photographers in another beautiful section of the cave.

Victoria and Keith were also pointing out the area's flora and fauna as we made the half-mile hike to the cave. We had never seen chicory before. We were admiring its delicate purple flowers. But early settlers used its roots to make a drink.

We were walking on what was once a busy state highway. At one time, people passed right by the cave on the only road that went through the Cumberland Gap. In 1996 a one-mile tunnel was blasted through Cumberland Mountain that allowed for a new way to get to Kentucky.

The national park service then closed the old highway, and the area was re-contoured and re-planted to the way it looked when the settlers were traversing these mountains in the 1800’s. There were 40,000 trees planted through this section to replace trees removed for the old highway. Today we had some shade for our hike from those trees that our now close to twenty years old.

After our cave tour, we bid our guides farewell. We headed up the trail toward Cumberland Gap. The first landmark we pass is Gap Creek, with its rustic wooden bridge.

We are now on the Wilderness Road trail. Daniel Boone made this trail famous as the best path for leading settlers through the Appalachian Mountains into the new territory of Kentucky. It’s neat to know that we are hiking where thousands of early American pioneers walked on their way to settling the west.

At the information center where we started our hike, there were metal sculptures representing the pioneers on the trail. Here we found that Daniel Boone wasn’t the first to make this trek through these mountains. The path was easier to find because herds of buffalo had trampled the grass as they made their way through this same opening. The warring tribes of Indians also had passed through this gap that was called “The Warriors Trail” before it was “The Wilderness Road.”

During the time from 1780-1810, Cumberland Gap hosted around 300,000 westward-seeking settlers as the easiest way through the Appalachian Mountains.

The picture above is Denisa standing in the saddle of Cumberland Gap—one of the few natural notches of the Appalachian Mountain range. The sign beside her reads, “Salt seeking buffalo, Moccasin clad warrior, Dreaming pioneer, Battling Civil War soldier--Each was here in the Cumberland Gap, and now so are you"

Even though it is now afternoon on a muggy day with temperatures in the 90’s, we continued up the trail. Thank goodness for hiking pants that zip off above the knees to transform into shorts. Denisa is now using the bottom of the pant legs to wipe the sweat off her brow. It’s hard to believe that just an hour before she was wearing long pants and a jacket inside the cave.

Our destination today is the Tri-State Peak. Not only is it hot, but the trail to the peak is all up-hill. But it’s worth the climb to get to the point where three states meet. Denisa is standing right on the border line of the states.

Mark is sitting on the pedestal that welcomes us to Tennessee on the top of the mountain.

This picture shows the three state pedestals on the top of the mountain. This is where Tennessee (The Volunteer State) meets Virginia (the Old Dominion) and the tip of Kentucky (The Bluegrass State). It was a confusing place, as we were humming all three state songs—“The Tennessee Waltz,” “Carry Me Back to Old Virginny,” and “My Old Kentucky Home.” We know this information from the state plaques on top of the mountain. We also thought it was interesting that these three states are so similar size, ranging from 40,395 to 42,244 square miles.

We were the only ones at the peak this day, until we were joined by this beautiful butterfly.

We were glad that the hike back to the car was mostly downhill. It included a hike down the Tennessee Road trail into the town of Cumberland Gap, Tennessee. At the edge of town is part of an old iron furnace. In the 1800's this was home to an iron smelting business.

The final stretch back to our parking lot was on a half-mile-long boardwalk that snaked back and forth along the edge of the forest.

After our 11-mile hike yesterday, this was supposed to be our day off. But we ended up hiking through three states at temperatures that ranged from 54 degrees to 95 degrees. That probably sounds more impressive than just saying that we walked almost seven miles on the trails today.