Red River Gorge

The Double Arch Trail is another short trail in the northwestern part of the Red River Gorge. The trailhead is very easy to find -- just drive along Tunnel Ridge Road until the road ends and you're there. The hike itself is easy so long as you don't mind climbing a few stairs... around 30 to be exact. It takes only an hour or so to reach Double Arch.

The main feature of this trail is, of course, Double Arch. Compared to the large arches in the area like Gray's Arch, Double Arch is fairly small. What's unique about this particular arch, as the name implies, is the second arch directly above the main arch. The main arch is 30 feet wide and around 11 feet high. The secondary arch is around 25 feet wide and about maybe 2 feet high. Getting a close-up picture of both arches together was surprisingly difficult since there's an extreme drop-off on one side of the arch and the other side was rather obscured by trees in the summer.

Shortly after you begin walking along the Double Arch trail, you'll see the junction for Trail #203: Auxier Branch. This trail will take you down across the valley to Auxier Ridge and joins Auxier Ridge Trail near the base of Courthouse Rock.

	Looking through the top arch
Auxier Ridge from Double Arch	Courthouse Rock as seen from Double Arch

While technically not part of the Double Arch trail, I've included some photos taken during our hike to Star Gap Arch which Kirsten and I did the same day. We didn't get to the arch (we took the wrong trail so we were hiking the next ridge over) but it was a nice, short walk and since the trail isn't officially marked, I've included the photos here...

Questions or comments? Drop me a line.