Original Trail

The Original Trail delivers the most direct and historically authentic route to Natural Bridge's magnificent sandstone arch—a 65-foot-high, 78-foot-span natural bridge carved from Corbin Sandstone over millions of years of differential erosion within the Red River Gorge Geological Area in Daniel Boone National Forest. The trail's name reflects its status as the first path cut to the arch in the 19th century when Natural Bridge was already drawing tourists from across Kentucky and beyond, eventually inspiring the construction of the Hemlock Lodge and resort facilities that have served visitors since 1954. The climb is genuinely strenuous despite its short distance, ascending nearly 600 feet through a series of steep switchbacks carved into the sandstone cliff system surrounding the arch. The trail passes beneath overhanging rock shelters—shallow caves formed where softer sandstone layers eroded faster than the overlying caprock—that provided shelter to prehistoric peoples for thousands of years. Evidence of historic campfires and occasional fragmentary lithic materials have been documented in these shelters during archaeological surveys. The sandstone throughout the climb is decorated with intricate crossbedded patterns recording ancient dune fields and river deltas from the Pennsylvanian period 300 million years ago. The arch itself is best appreciated from below, where its extraordinary span frames a window of sky and the surrounding rock-house forest of hemlock and rhododendron frames the view.