Images of Cumberland Gap National Historical Park – Kentucky, taken in July 2024.

From the late 1700s, when the Wilderness Road was blazed through the Appalachian Mountains by frontiersman Daniel Boone, it became one of the primary paths as the U.S. expanded Westward. The Gap was a key point in this mountainous area and allowed between 200,000 and 300,000 people to migrate west. As roads, railroads and canals were built in the 1830s and 40s, the Cumberland Gap declined in importance although it was considered strategic by both the North and the South during the Civil War. In 1996, the U.S. Highway 25E Tunnel was constructed bypassing the Gap and the area was restored to its 1810 appearance. Today, Cumberland Gap National Historical Park protects this diverse mountain ecosystem.

My visit to the park, and its thickly wooded landscape, showed it to be a very peaceful place with expansive views of the surrounding area as well as a variety of interesting plants and animals, from a tiny silkworm to deer and giant rock formations and trees. Equally as interesting was the Pinnacle Road, snaking through the wilderness with its banked corners and tight 180-degree turns. My kind of road!