Cold Weather Van Camping Deep in the Mountains With a Wood Stove

This week I packed up the van and headed deep into the Appalachian Mountains to meet up with a friend for a week of camping in Red River Gorge. We spent five days exploring trails, camping in the first cold temperatures of the year, discovering good local food and finding quiet spots to just soak in the beautiful fall foliage. From cozy campfires under the stars to paddleboarding underground through an abandoned mine, this trip was an epic adventure exploring a part of the country I've never been in my van. The van trip officially begins. We are headed somewhere I've never been before but first tonight we're gonna make a stop in Nashville and I'm gonna sleep in my friend Grace's driveway. Now my OG channel members will know who Grace is. She threw hiked a huge portion of the Appalachian Trail with me in 2021 and I haven't seen her in a few years so I'm super excited to have dinner and catch up. We have about six hours to go. The van's already a disaster. Traffic is terrible. It's gonna be a great trip. The speaker system in my 20 year old van sucks so I am now using this for music and directions and I probably won't film much because uh you probably can't hear me. It is very loud in here. All right y'all I made it to Nashville. I'm gonna sleep in my friend's driveway and then wake up tomorrow and drive the remaining four hours to Kentucky. I am about to leave Nashville and head to the final destination. I've never been really to Kentucky. I think I've driven through but never actually spent time there. We were gonna go to Mammoth Cave National Park but government is shut down and they're not doing the cave tours which would be like that's the whole reason you go there right? I've got about a four hour drive. I got no video of my time with Grace because we were just yapping the whole time. We had a lot to catch up on. It was so good to see her. About to get on the road, brave some Nashville traffic, meet up with Sunshine and have a whole week of camping, hiking and all the good things in life. Red River Gorge is a world-class climbing destination also with tons of hiking, camping, kayaking and caves. It's famous for its dramatic sandstone cliffs, lush forests and over 150 natural bridges hidden throughout and of course we're going to be exploring a little bit of everything this week. I'm your Aunt Kelly! My older subscribers might also remember my friend Sunshine. She hiked the last 200 miles of the AT with me in 2021 and she's now the proud mother of this cutie dude Wilder and we're all going to be embarking on this Red River Gorge adventure together this week. I just pulled off on the exit about to go into Slade and I saw a sign off the interstate for a restaurant called The Hungry Hiker so we're gonna go grab some food and then figure out what's next. We have nothing planned, we're both just winging it because that's what we do. This looks like a brand new place. It's nice. The Hungry Hiker was delicious but we have decided that we're gonna camp tonight at the Natural Bridge Resort which is like four minutes from here so we are going to go get camp set up. Can you wave at the camera? Can you wave? Can you say hi I'm Wilder? All right I got the van level. We got an RV spot. Sunshine's gonna set up her tent. We got a nice little lake and it's a little camp spot. This is the van. I might fire up my wood stove tonight. We got perfect weather and not too shabby. We got some firewood and for just a chill night. My how things have changed. Come here Wilder. Go get your present. Your flashlight. Look you press this flashlight so you can see around camp. Yeah good job Wilder. You gonna put up the tent? I'm always doing all the work around here. You just get to play. I'm back at the van. We ran out to town real quick to get just a few groceries and things for the week while we have a little campfire tonight. A bit chilly. Probably go about some hikes to hit tomorrow. All right guys. Beginning of this year I was doing a lot of run chronicles and we're gonna get back to that. I've been not running all summer because I was fixing some muscle imbalances and things that could have turned into injury but I'm back on the grind and that means staying consistent even on vacation. I'm gonna do 30 minutes. A little path around the campground and we're just gonna get it done. I just finished my run. I got three miles in and then I had to do some work so I sat at the benches and bummed some wi-fi. This is definitely a work vacation but I am about to take a shower and wow we're so bougie. The heater in here. Take a nice hot shower. This is a super bougie campground. I paid a pretty penny for it so I'm gonna be taking the full advantage of all of the amenities. They're close. They're literally right behind that tree. I knew it was cold but I didn't realize it was this cold. Morning everybody. It's cold here. Let's make some breakfast shall we? Thanks again for the coffee. You're welcome. I'm making eggs. I hope you don't mind scrambled. I'm excited for you to be a mom. You're gonna be like the best mom. I gotta find a man first before we can even consider. Cheers. Something about a hot pot of coffee in the morning when you're camping. It's just so much better. Today we are gonna be going hiking. There are so many different trails in this area. A lot of cool things to see but we found a trail. It's about six miles. Tonight we are not gonna be camping here again I don't think. There is actually a pizza place down the road and a bunch of climbers camp in the yard of the pizza place. That looks really fun so we're probably gonna check that out for tonight. And then there's free camping in the Boone National Forest which is around here. We had a slow rest of the morning at camp. They had an awesome picnic table area at this campground where there was wi-fi so I was able to get some work done and just enjoy the fresh air and eventually we got packed up and dressed to hit the trails and do some exploring. We are en route to our hike. I love this area. It kind of reminds me of the Appalachian Trail. There's just a bunch of really small towns and mom and pop shops around like gear outfitters and stuff. We are gonna be doing a hike that I found on all trails. I'll put it on the screen. The drive out here is so beautiful and the cool thing is it's only like 10 minutes away from where we camped. Everything that you could ever want to do is right here. I would love to find a friend that will take me climbing and teach me how to climb. This is so cool. That's why this is called the tunnel road. I can't believe there's somebody else. Oh my gosh this is terrifying. One lane. I gotta turn my lights on. This is a legit tunnel. Whoa this is spooky. When you come out and these rock formations are starting to get crazy. Look at that. We are in the Daniel Boone National Park. Before heading off on the hike I made a quick lunch in the van and then hydrated with Element. Element is a tasty electrolyte beverage with a scientifically backed formula of electrolytes with 1000 milligrams of sodium, 200 milligrams of potassium, and 60 milligrams of magnesium that are guaranteed to keep you hydrated. I take Element everywhere with me on every trip whether I'm hiking, running, traveling. Element has been helping to keep me properly hydrated for over two years now. I love how I can stash the packets anywhere. For this trip I also packed some sparkling Element drinks. They have all the good electrolytes packed inside a delicious canned beverage. I love sipping a cold one of these after a hard workout or hike or when I'm just driving. Right now you can use my code KELLYHAYES at checkout for a free sample pack of Element's best flavors with your purchase. Link is in my description and thank you so much Element as always for sponsoring today's video. Okay we are now at the point where we have to make the decision if we want to go clockwise or counterclockwise and I think we're gonna go clockwise. Is this clockwise? No this is counterclockwise. We've already spoken we're going this way. I don't know. I can't tell time on an analog clock so it is huge. I've been seeing those. Look at all the rhododendron. Yeah it just feels like we're on the A.T. right now. I love it. It's pretty cool there's a little stream that runs. We are in a gorge. This is all just like really you can't tell on video but it's really really tall. I promise it's really. I feel small. Lots of stairs. Super moment. We are climbing. Small foliage. Wow I bet this is such a good view when all the leaves are down. Our trail is right here along the ridge. So nice. This is Gray's Arch. You can see it. Oh whoa. That's Gray's Arch. Wow. So I did not realize it until a minute ago when I looked at the map but we are right off the Sheltowee Trace Trail which is a through hike. The Sheltowee goes straight into the town we stayed in last night. Pretty cool. We're at another scenic view with the beautiful red orange trees. We just finished the hike. That was incredible. And now we're gonna head to Miguel's the pizza place where we're gonna camp and we're of course gonna get pizza. Hang out there for the rest of the night but I just love traveling in a van because people who either are looking into getting a van or are van life people they always notice my chimney. So it's a conversation starter. It's cool how a lot of people are excited about this lifestyle and think it's cool. In my humble opinion it's the best way to travel because it's just cheap. Feels good to be back in the van. Tonight I think I'm gonna get the wood stove fired up. We're on the way to Miguel's pizza and the really cool part about this area is that everything is so closed and I don't even have to use my directions anymore. I just know where things are. It's just kind of nice. It feels so small. I'm hungry. I'm excited for some pizza. Welcome to Miguel's. This is an iconic restaurant hangout and campground for climbers. Some climbers even live here full time during the season because it's kind of the center of Red River Gorge and all the best climbing spots. They're famous for their delicious pizza where you order by the slice and can choose everything from crust to toppings. All right we are going to the gear shop. There's laundry, there's everything here. There's everything here. A bunch of gear here. Look this is the shower house. Wow we can have a shower two nights in a row. There's also a fully stocked gear shop with tons of climbing gear, apparel, merch, some camping stuff. This place had it all. It's mostly climbing gear in here. I really want to get into climbing. After eating our pizza and perusing around the gear shop, we paid for camping, grabbed our tags, and then ventured off to scope out a camp spot. T-shirts at the gear store and we found out that it is four dollars a night to camp and you can set your tent up anywhere or park your van wherever you can find and camp. It's a pretty good deal. We're excited. The property at Miguel's is huge and there is all types of places to explore. Look at all the shoes in the tree. And all types of campers were staying here from people camping in their cars, vans, tents, hammocks. Of course I found a basketball goal, got some shots up before finally finding the perfect camping spot for all of us. All right well it is nothing fancy at all but this is my spot for the night and it's a pretty level all set up for the night. Okay, new plan. We moved spots so that Sunshine can camp right behind me and we have a pretty perfect little spot here. Hey look, it's my friend. Literally the exact same vehicle as mine except they have Mercedes emblem and I don't but it's the same part, same engine. Oh yeah, it's about to be cozy in here. That night we went back up to Miguel's and got a salad for dinner and then I settled in my van for the coldest night yet. Back in the van for the night. Sunshine and I went back up to the restaurant. We ate pizza at like, I don't know, three. It's kind of like lunch but also kind of like dinner. We're just gonna have a early night. The only bad thing about this campsite is that there's not like a fire pit next to where we're camping. I'm going to get the wood stove going. It is 55 degrees in here. Get this cranking. Maybe watch some YouTube videos. Do some work. The cool thing about camping here is that I believe we're pretty close to all trailheads. This place is such a vibe because everybody is just out here living in their vans. I've seen some pretty cool setups. I always love seeing other people's van setups. I think I'm going to get cozy. Put on my night clothes. Turn in some night. Good morning everybody. It's really cold again this morning so I just started the wood stove and it's nice and warm in here. Got it up to 68 but when I woke up it was close to 30 something degrees. I'm gonna dethaw in here and sunshine and wilder are gonna come in and then we're gonna go up to Miguel's and get some breakfast. Breakfast was so good and my van is still warm surprisingly. I'm having the wood stove going. Today we're gonna hit the general store and also check out the visitors center to get some backcountry permits because we're gonna camp in the backcountry tonight and then I have the underground paddle boarding adventure later today as well so it's going to be a good day. We had another slow morning and took some time to bask in the sun. I got some stretching in. Wilder got to run around and I did my bible study. Then I packed up the van and we headed into town to lollygag around. We are at the general store. We're gonna check that out real quick, hit the visitors center and then probably hike. We hit up the general store, a crystal arts shop, the visitors center and then grab some mexican for lunch. After all that there was no time for a hike because it was time to head to the underground mine for my paddle boarding adventure. All right guys we're at the paddle boarding spot. I'm gonna be doing a deluxe tour today with a clear bottom paddle board and I'm pretty excited. We're gonna be going underwater and doing like an hour and a half little paddle. Okay so with the tour it is 50 degrees year round down there so I have no idea what to wear down there so that I'm not freezing and uncomfortable the whole time. So I sure hope that I don't fall in because that will ruin my life. Here's what I went with and it's just gonna be me because Wilder is too young to go on the paddle board so we'll meet up with Sunshine and him after. They're going to be looking for a wild camping spot in the Daniel Boone National Forest. All these really big mine areas. I don't know if the water starts in there or what. It's pretty creepy. We're gonna hike down to see the dock where we can get a paddle board. This is a limestone rock so that's probably why this water is pretty clear. Thank you. All right guys on the paddle board I have my own light. I've never seen a clear paddle board before so this is pretty cool. It is freezing in here. I guess I'm gonna keep my shoes on. I'm the only one paddle boarding today. I thought everybody, I thought this was a paddle board tour but it's not. There's like still old mining stuff in here. This is an abandoned limestone mine that dates back over 100 years when it was first dug out in the late 1800s. It wasn't until the 1980s that the miners accidentally hit an aquifer and the mine flooded. Just five years later the mine became too flooded and was abandoned. It sat abandoned for decades until around 2016 when it was purchased and boating tours began. There are nearly five miles of tunnels in here and around 300 hallways. Can you imagine getting lost in here? That is nightmare fuel. The gorge started stocking the mine waters with rainbow trout and you can see them hanging out by the lights in the cave. They call them their pet rainbow trout because in order to keep them alive they have to feed them every few days and provide lights around the cave so that they can see. And as we explored through the mine our guides took us to the aquifer spots where we could see where the water comes in to fill the caves. I'm gonna get wet. All right this is the area where it's starting to build while I strip over it because the ceiling is getting really low and I'm probably gonna have to duck once I get over here. But this is the deepest part of the water. I don't like this. Why do I always do this? I'm going to claustrophobic cave like spaces. They are cute. This is so cool. You could get lost in here man. There's so many different little tunnels and there's they have like markings on the walls so that they know where they're going. They got all sorts of stuff hanging in there. Amazing. I just got done paddle boarding. That was so much fun. I 10 out of 10 recommend that. It was really really cool. There was massive trout. Lots of history. It was just cool to be under the caves. The water is crystal clear. I guess it's not a cave. It's a mine. But really cool being on that clear stand-up paddle board. I've never seen one of those before. And the guys that do the tours are funny and I thought it was a lot of fun. So shout out to my neighbor for suggesting that. Definitely something you got to put on your list if you're out here. All right We are back at McGill's because we live here now. But we're just gonna be grabbing. I want to get a salad for dinner and then we're gonna head to our campsite. And I really in Kentucky have been enjoying these Owl 8 sodas. The only one I've gotten is this zero sugar ginger ale. But it's not like most diet sodas that use aspartame. I hate that taste. This one uses a different sweetener I think sucralose. So it's probably not healthy for you. These are like locally made in Kentucky and everybody drinks them. They're everywhere. So I'm gonna get one of these in my salad tonight. All right we're here at Land of the Arches. Can I grab it? Yeah. Now the fun part. Finding a campsite in the dark. Don't recommend this. While I was at the kayaking tour I asked one of the workers if they knew any good camping spots and she told us about a campground called Land of the Arches. Okay I think we found a spot. This place is pretty cool. Yeah I think we should pull in all the way to this. It's not exactly the wild camping spot we were looking for but it was dark and this was going to be our best bet. The place ended up feeling like backcountry camping because it's just a big plot of land where you go find a place to set up either in the woods or in the fields. Guys the fire went out outside. It's getting a bit chilly so I got the wood stove fired up again. Lighting this wood stove and living happily in my van. It truly is such a vibe. With the wood stove I always crack the window just a tad bit or I open my max air fan. Just have that for ventilation. It is very cozy in here. It's about 54 degrees so I'm gonna try to get it a little bit warmer than that. I like to run it pretty hot right before bed. Get as warm as I can so I can fall asleep. Good morning everybody. Got the wood stove cranking. About to scramble up some eggs. It's another cold morning here in the Appalachian Mountains of Kentucky and it's morning time. We got to this campsite at night as you guys saw. Had a little trouble finding a good spot. This is when the mornings are exciting because we get to see how we did and there were so many stars out and it was only what eight dollars to camp here. I think we might stay here another night. Set up base camp here. This is like a climbing hub hot spot for climbers. Look at this cute little mug I got yesterday. On the inside, I don't know if you can see, says cup of cozy. I thought it was really cute. All right guys, time to get after it. Gonna head a run. Looks like this is a good place to run. There's a lot of different trails and stuff. Gotta get like 30 minutes in and then we are gonna hit some trails. This campground's really cool. I was looking on backcountry onyx which shows like the plot lines. Basically, this campground just owns a bunch of land and you find a spot to park. It's very unregulated. You pay your eight dollars and then you just find a spot. Some places have fire rings. Other places you can go up a four by four road kind of off road and find a spot but they have something for everybody. Kind of nice because there's a lot of trails to run around the area too. So they also have like a big barn area that has wi-fi and tables and just a big open area for people to congregate and there's also a camper's kitchen that you can use. So this place is pretty cool. It's like Appalachian Trail in this area but for climbers and you know I guess campers and hikers too but this is really really neat. Like this really cool waterfall cave situation. These must be some climbing walls. It would make sense. Green climbing world after all. Wow this is sick. This rock wall goes all along here. All the rhododendron. Oh that's a big gorge down there. Whoa that is really far down. That's crazy. This was so unassuming because we were just on regular trail and then we're in this magnificent rock face gorge. I don't even know what you call this. Okay I'm gonna go find sunshine. It's wilder. Get ready for the day. I'm ready to do some hikes. We got some beta from locals on the really cool hikes in the area so I think we're gonna hit those up today. Most of the hikes around here are really short day hikes to like a scenic overlook. I mentioned the other day the Sheltowee Trace Trail is right through here which is definitely a trail I want to through hike one day. It's a little over 300 miles and it goes just through like the western Appalachian Mountains through this Red River Gorge area. Being out here makes me want to drop everything and just go on a through hike. And I love my cabin. I'm excited to get back to it but this is where I'm at in life. I'm drawn to like all these different things and it's about balancing all of them. Making sure that I don't just get stuck in one. So we're trying to create balance as with anything in life I believe. And here's where we're camped. We went down to the lower section. The barn and everything's up there. Pretty perfect spot honestly. When we got in last night it was pitch like dark. I didn't realize how far away from the fire I parked my van. I went ahead and took down my bug nets because thankfully there's not really any bugs. There's a lot in Arkansas but it's kind of too cold now for bugs here. Okay we are gonna eat here for lunch. Walking distance away from where we camped. Let's get some food. After fueling up with some delicious homemade chili at the lodge we headed to Natural Bridge State Park to hike some of the signature hikes in the area. That's the Sheltowee Trace Trail sign. We might actually be doing a tiny little section of it today. This trail is gonna take us around the lake and then up to the Natural Bridge. So beautiful here. Well this is cool huh? It's a cave but you can't go inside. All right we made it to the Natural Bridge. This is pretty cool. Natural bridges are formed from years and years of erosion from water, weather, and winds over time. Most of the rock here is limestone and it is the perfect rock type to form into arches over time. It's so crazy because they look man-made but they are completely formed by nature. Once you get to the Natural Bridge you can actually climb up to the top of it through this super narrow rock path canyon. It's so narrow that some people can't even make it through. We ended up having to wait a minute though because we came at a busy time and tons of people kept trying to come through from the other side so we'd have to turn around and go back. This is so narrow that you have to wait in line basically to get up here when there's a lot of people. We've had to backtrack three times. Oh am I gonna fit? I should thank you for those slot things to show you how wide it loads. Right? Yeah. Thanks guys. You can take a chairlift down for $17 which is kind of wild. Oh I like this. Oh wow look you get a view of the Natural Bridge. We were just over there. Get one. Yeah. Look there's Miguel's. That is Miguel's. Is that where we camped? Yeah that's Miguel's. We camped there. Wow we camped there. There's a cool hoodoo looking rock. Wow there's a lot of really cool trails up here. They zigzag around up here on the ridge to all these different cool views. This is so cool. This is called the devil's something but again the video does not do justice of how steep this is but you just get a little nudged. I don't know how sunshine just did this with a baby. Oh yeah. Whoa another cave. Oh hey it's the walk in there. Yeah there's definitely water running back there. Balance rock. All right guys we did a little over five miles on the trails behind the Natural Bridge State Park. Highly recommend that area if you're in Red River Gorge and you want to just hike around to a lot of scenic spots but we're heading to Hopps Farm to Table restaurant for dinner. Hi girl. Meat are open. After dinner we huddled up in the van. I got the wood stove all fired up and we drank tea and just hung out before I had to get on the road and head back home in the morning. All right guys and just like that my Red River Gorge adventure trip has commenced. I am headed home. I have a 10-hour drive. I don't know if I'll do the full thing tonight. I don't know. Just gonna see how I feel but thank you guys so much for watching this video. It was so much fun being out here. Perfect time of the year to come. The fall foliage is awesome. There's so much hiking. I wish I knew how to climb because I would definitely be doing that too but highly recommend this place. If you like this video don't forget to comment, like, subscribe and I will see y'all on the next one. Bye.