Hollerwood - Stanton, KY

Mike_H

Mike_H

autos are better - WRWD508
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Spent a little time in S.E. Kentucky the last few days. We were in the Red River Gorge area, at an offroad park called Hollerwood. Had lots of fun...but the weather was wet and KY has lots of clay (so I'm sure my JJ's are fucked again). This was my first experience with "down south" wheelin too. Its definitely different than I'm used to. Hills are bigger, lots of off-camber, and the trail maintenance there is non-existent so there were some REALLY rutted out spots that we had to bypass (so would anyone who wasn't running 40s). Very nice scenery though and the intermediate trails were as difficult as anything we have in Michigan, so it was a good learning experience. We didn't get a chance to do either of the widowmakers, either, so I'll have to go back.

Group I went with was my TJ on 35's, An LJ on 35's, a TJ on 33's and a XJ on 32's. The XJ guy was dragging diffs, a LOT.

Some pics

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We did some sightseeing too. This is Nada Tunnel. 900 feet straight through the rock. Single lane road, its an old rail grade they used to get lumber up and out of the gorge.

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This is called townsend cave. It was really neat, walk right in (could have driven in) and it went back further than any of us were willing to go.

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A good time was had by all!
 
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Great pics. If you get back to KY check out the Kentucky Adventure Tour (KAT). It's a 1000 mile loop and runs through some of the same area you were at in the gorge. I've done some of it on two wheels but look to get the Jeep out there this summer.

There's some great trails here but yes, the clay and mud are sometimes awful.
 
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Nice pics, Mike. Hollerwood is cool. We got caught in a hail storm on big widow maker. The rapidly rising water made for an interesting time picking lines. It’s where I received my worst body damage.
 
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I love Hollerwood . We were there 3 times last year . We’ve had lunch in Townsend cave several times . Really nice spot to cool down in the heat of the day . Stump cave is another good one . I’m hoping my Jeep and I are up to Big Widow this year .
 
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JDM said:
I love Hollerwood . We were there 3 times last year . We’ve had lunch in Townsend cave several times . Really nice spot to cool down in the heat of the day . Stump cave is another good one . I’m hoping my Jeep and I are up to Big Widow this year .
Click to expand...

I will be going back to conquer the widows...and tipsy rock, get up to Carburetor hill, etc. I think we drove by Stump Cave...but we were on a trail above it. There was a cave marked on the TrailView App that we passed, but didn't see.
 
Mike_H said:
I will be going back to conquer the widows...and tipsy rock, get up to Carburetor hill, etc. I think we drove by Stump Cave...but we were on a trail above it. There was a cave marked on the TrailView App that we passed, but didn't see.
Click to expand...

These trail names are not very confidence inducing LOL.

Great trip log, btw.
 
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Rockstar Garage has a good video there from The Great American Crawl . Near the end of the video you’ll see Nic Ashby almost go end over end on Firebreak . I wouldn’t recommend that obstacle to anyone .

 
Ole Rusty said:
Great pics. If you get back to KY check out the Kentucky Adventure Tour (KAT). It's a 1000 mile loop and runs through some of the same area you were at in the gorge. I've done some of it on two wheels but look to get the Jeep out there this summer.

There's some great trails here but yes, the clay and mud are sometimes awful.
Click to expand...

I did the Daniel Boone Backcountry Byway a few years ago.
IIRC, it's only 100 miles.
Thinking about doing the KAT too.

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Went down to the Nemo tunnel too.
Heard it's closed now.

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Nada tunnel is near Hollerwood in the Red River Gorge . Nemo tunnel is In Tennessee and you’re right about it being closed .
 
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Coming up out of the creek at Jimmy’s Bend in Hollerwood


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