Slade, Kentucky: Natural Bridge: Skylift

Not only is this particular Natural Bridge one of the few that visitors can walk across, it has its own "Skylift" to carry tourists sweat-free up a mountainside to visit this wonder of nature.

The mile-long sky lift to Natural Bridge carries you over a huge boulder littered with thousands of rubber and elastic hairbands. We were too high from the ground to be able to see how many people missed the rock (Including me). My guess is that there were enough to make you bounce off the ground if you fell.

There are hiking trails to the top of Natural Bridge as well as the sky lift. You can walk across the bridge as well as underneath. If you choose to follow the trail under the bridge you must pass through a very tight squeeze between the bridge and some other rocks.

The park also has pedal boats, a pool, and mini golf.

A nice hike to a scenic natural bridge. Plenty to do, including camping and a lodge.

This is a beautiful park with a natural bridge formation up a trail that is somewhat more strenuous than I can recall it being as a kid. Cool snake pits and junk stores are on the route in.

The area has many natural arches, and we went on a driving tour of the area as kids following in a caravan with a park ranger. The road taken is along an old railroad route that was used to lumber out the gorge. I can recall the ranger gathering all the caravan participants and telling us the ground rules of the trip. We were to follow behind and when he wanted anyone to see a site or formation, he would point out the car window. The inhabitants of the following car were to point at the same location and sort of pass it along for the next folks to point at as we passed. We kids soon saw ample opportunity to "fake out" the folks behind us by pointing randomly at nothing and watching all others follow suit.

The funniest advice given by the park ranger was when he explained we would be passing through a little town called Nada. He said this means "nothing" in Spanish and he explained that was what the residents there had.... nothing! He advised us not to stare at these people as they didn't like it! This is in the days before Political Correctness.