I recently took a trip to Red River Gorge in Slade, Kentucky, and thought I’d share my experience. We stayed at a cute little cabin, ate some delicious food, had some great drinks, and explored a little bit of Kentucky, over the span of a couple of days.

I’d only been to Red River Gorge once, to hike for my bestie’s birthday (check out my Hiking in Kentucky post to see details of my hiking adventures from the past few years), and the end result was gorgeous. I was excited to check out more of the area, and check out some local businesses near The Gorge.

The Cabin

[The cabin was gifted to us for the night, but all opinions are my own.] We stayed in a little privately owned cabin for the night. It was a little hard to find, but once we got there it was lovely. There was a loft with one bedroom (the stairs were a little scary for me so I slept on the main floor), and a bedroom and bathroom on the main floor. There was a small kitchen and a cozy little living room. The porch wrapped around the building and was a gorgeous little space. Unfortunately, we didn’t get to use the fire pit, because it rained before we arrived and the wood was wet, but that option is there for dry weekends, which I love.

Miguel’s

Miguel’s is very well-known for its pizza, so we had to make a stop there. I went last time I hiked The Gorge, and was very happy to go back. I love how many topping options they have for the pizza, and the sizes are huge. It’s good pizza, but it can be hard to find a spot to eat (it’s always packed because it’s so popular). Pair the pizza with a cold Ale 8 for the full Kentucky experience.

Hop’s

We had dinner at Hop’s, a locally owned, farm-to-table restaurant with a seasonally changing menu. They use local products to create their menu, which was really interesting and included plenty of dairy and gluten free recipes. There was also an extensive drink menu, with tons of cocktails and quite a large selection of Kentucky-made beers (try the key lime pie cocktail – it is so good!). It’s in a beautiful location, right beside the creek, and the owner was so sweet and lovely (we also found out she used to be a professor at Morehead, so that was a nice little personal connection).

The Brick

The Brick serves up ice cream, so we made a little stop after dinner. We each got a scoop, and it was pretty good. It’s also a coffee shop, but we only had time to check out the ice cream side.

Daniel Boone’s Coffee Shop

We made one last little stop on our trip, to Daniel Boone’s Coffee Shop. We hiked early in the morning, and wanted to stop for coffee on our way out. It ended up being the perfect time to grab a bite to eat too, so we ended up eating lunch while we were there. The shop has sandwiches, wraps, smoothies, and more, as well as coffee. A little bit of each seemed like the only appropriate thing to order, and I highly recommend checking them out after a nice hike.

Hiking

There are so many gorgeous trails at The Gorge. One of the girls I was with picked out the Chimney Top Trail hike (the easiest one available at The Gorge). We took a little adventure out to the overlook. There’s a beautiful view from the end of the trail, and a couple of cute little detours I took along the way too, that led to some unguarded cliff edges, which I love. If you want to check out more of my hiking adventures in KY, check out this post.