Moose Head Arch: RIP

Sad News

As I’ve discussed before, Bill Patrick has produced a wonderful DVD series titled “The Arches of the Red River Gorge Kentucky.” Volume 13 recently came out, which has 100 newly documented arches in Red River Gorge. Well, it’s actually 99. You see, Bill included 100 reported arches, but unfortunately, one of the arches collapsed between its discovery and its confirmation, but Bill decided to include it in Volume 13 anyway, with an asterisk. The photograph shows Moose Head Arch, taken by Matt Hemsath, who discovered this small arch. The arch was a flat section of rock that protruded from a cliff, connected to the cliff wall on either end, with a longer section in its middle. From the photo, you can see the moose head in the middle, with the tips of the antlers attached to the rock wall.

Photo Credit: Matt Hemsath

But when the woman who attempted to confirm the arch visited its location, all she could see were flat pieces of rock on the ground from the shattered arch and the lighter-colored spots on the wall where the antlers once adorned the rock face. It’s a pity that this arch is lost because it looks so interesting, and I regret not seeing it before its demise. It makes me want to redouble my efforts to see as many arches in the gorge as God gives me strength to do it, and I hope we don’t lose any more arches.

What happened to Moose Head Arch? From the tree debris accompanying the fragments of Moose Head Arch, it was obvious that debris falling from above smashed into this fragile arch, bringing it down.

My discussion of no arches collapsing in Red River Gorge was in comparison to the many arches in Utah. There have been several documented arches in Utah that have collapsed. I attribute that to the differences in the sandstone in Utah and Red River Gorge. Apparently, the Corbin Sandstone in Kentucky is much more resistant to collapse than the sandstones that have arches in Utah.

But then, the collapse of Moose Head Arch was different from the collapse of Utah arches. Utah’s arches collapse under their own weight, but Moose Head Arch was knocked down by tree debris falling in a storm. This may have happened when Hurricane Helene passed through in late September. There were high winds that blew down many trees in the gorge, initially blocking roads and trails until crews were able to clear the way. It even canceled my planned plunge off Jump Rock to celebrate my 70th birthday. I guess I’ll have to wait four more years to do this because doing it on my 71st birthday this year just doesn’t have the same cachet.

How Many Arches Are in Red River Gorge?

In preparing this blog post, I exchanged some emails with Bill. I asked him if he had a count of arches in Red River Gorge. He said that he’d have to get back to me. When he did, he reported that he had a list of 1,175 arches and that he had solid leads on another couple hundred arches that almost certainly will be confirmed. Bill’s list includes any arch within 20 miles of Slade, a small community in the middle of the gorge. I’m a bit of a purist—my list of arches that I have visited in the gorge is restricted to just those in the Red River watershed. I keep a separate list of arches that are close but just over the divide into other watersheds, such as the Licking River watershed. But the geology doesn’t necessarily change when you cross a divide—it’s the same rocks and the same processes that formed the rugged canyons on the other side.

My “pure” list stands at just over 400. I have a dozen or so arches outside the watershed that Bill includes. Therefore, I have seen about one-third of the arches in the gorge. Bill is working on Volume 14. It probably will have 100 new arches. So just to keep up, I’ll have to visit at least 30 new (to me) arches before Volume 14 comes out. Fifty years or so ago, I read one place that there were “more than 80 arches in Red River Gorge.” Another source said “more than 100.” I should have started earlier when there weren’t so many known arches.

Arch hunting in Red River probably became a thing during the 1980s. This was long before GPS, so it wasn’t easy telling where one was. The advent of GPS changed all that, and the pace of arch discoveries in the gorge has picked up, with some new enthusiasts scouring cliff lines looking for not-yet-documented arches. It is amazing to learn that there are large sections of the gorge that have not yet been searched. My hiking buddies and I have found a few new arches, and we’ve confirmed a few too. We don’t specifically look for new arches, but we do stumble upon them from time to time in places where people have already searched for arches. With the rugged landscape and dense vegetation, it is difficult to spot many arches, even when very close to them.

Red River is recognized as having the second-greatest number of arches in the United States.

How many arches are there in Red River Gorge? Probably well over 2,000. That is significant because Red River is recognized as having the second-greatest number of arches in the United States. Only Arches National Park has more arches, about 2,000. But at the rate Utah is losing arches and Kentuckians are finding arches, it is only a matter of time before Red River Gorge takes the crown. I hope that I live long enough to see that.