Author – Hunter Dycus
Just 10 minutes down the Mountain Parkway from the heart of Red River Gorge you’ll find Campton, Kentucky. This small town is one of the many cities that make up part of the Red River Gorge Geological Area. Campton, originally called ‘Camp Town’ is located along Swift Camp Creek and was settled due to the legend of John Swift’s silver mine being located in the area. Home to Red River Rockhouse, the Wolfe County Historical Museum, Red River Gorge Zipline and Southeast Mountain Guides and of course StayOver’s office location, just to name a few, there’s certainly no shortage of amazing activities available in the area!
Campton Kentucky City Hall signage near Red River Gorge.
“The Friendliest Town in the Mountains”
Approximately 3 miles from the center of town lies Ethan Lane, a short, hillside road that currently houses 4 of our beautiful cabins in a wonderfully wooded setting. You can check out our Ethan Lane cabins here. StayOver has gone above and beyond to assist our guests with finding this location, which GPS platforms can be iffy about locating. Between the Check-in Instructions email that was sent 7 days prior to our arrival and the ample signage, we had no problems finding our cabin, Sunrise. Sunrise Cabin rests at the top left of Ethan Lane, overlooking the most wonderful little farm and foot hills of Red River Gorge, KY.
As you can probably tell by now, Sunrise is our next cabin highlight blog. My wife and I thoroughly enjoyed our stay and, without sounding like a broken record, we can’t wait to come back and stay again. But, who doesn’t want to just live in a cabin in the mountains? First, let me just reiterate by saying that I am super impressed with the effort that StayOver has put in to ensure guests can find this very tricky cabin. Trusty Google can’t even get the GPS coordinates of this cabin right, so the added directions and signs that StayOver supplies truly helps. Pro-Tip: if you’ve “arrived” and are sitting outside of someone’s house with ‘No Trespassing’ signs, you’ve gone about a football field too far down the road. The Ethan Lane hill that leads to Sunrise is a bit on the steep side, however, our little 4-cylinder FWD had no problems making it to the top.
We were immediately able to recognize Sunrise, not only by the sign, but by the amazing farm that it overlooks. Once you hit the driveway, you have a cabin on your left and a fenced-in, cattle roaming farm to your right. I may be a born-and-raised Kentuckian that’s seen farms his whole life, but I never turn down an opportunity to watch a farmer work or see farm animals grazing. If you’re from a bigger city, you’ll really appreciate the quaint, homely feel of a farm being next door. We were ecstatic to be warmly welcomed by a small herd of cows, watching as we packed in all of our belongings.
Upon entering the house, it was very apparent that the owner had recently updated the decor. Everything was so modern, yet fitting for this wonderful, wooden cabin. There are also multiple pieces of artwork from a local artist, which truly adds to the charm. Aside from the amazing decor, the immense window-wall immediately grabbed our attention. Spanning the entire length of the cabin and topping out with the vaulted ceiling, the window-wall allowed mass amounts of amazing sunlight into the cabin. Even though we were inside, it still felt like we were one with nature.
After unpacking, we made our way to the kitchen for some coffee-rubbed, spicy New York strip steak, cheesy, pepper-jack rice and garlicky, sauteed asparagus. I was seriously impressed with the crazy amount of cooking utensils that the cabin owner supplies. Check out the handle on that knife! I really think the kitchen is the perfect size. Everything you need is right at your fingertips, but there’s enough room for multiple people.
Finally, the moment we’ve all been waiting for…the hot tub. Obviously, we had a great time soaking in the bubbly hot tub. Who wouldn’t? Late-night hot tub soaks are the absolute best, especially when the hot tub has some awesome light features! The hot tub here at Sunrise has multiple colored lights that you can select through to choose the perfect fit for your ambiance. We set our color to blue and relaxed by the farm before heading up to the loft to snuggle up in the comfy bed.
The first morning was spent eating some vanilla brioche loaf, sipping on some iced tea and watching the cows eat their breakfast. The farmer brought a hay bale up the hill and the chowing cows were just feet in front of us! Afterwards, we took a quick trip to Skybridge – one of the more famous trails in the Red River Gorge Geological Area. The famous Skybridge arch was breathtaking, even though it wasn’t our first trip there. The trail that leads to/from Skybridge is winding and has so many amazing rock faces and formations along the way. We highly encourage you to check this fantastic trail out during your #RRG adventures. The remainder of the day, believe it or not, was spent at the cabin. We roamed the property, walked along the fence with the cows and relaxed on the front porch – just appreciating being away from it all.
As always, we had a wonderful time at our cabin with StayOver in Red River Gorge. Sunrise was truly a spectacular cabin, tucked away in the hillsides of Campton, KY. Of course we plan on coming back! We have so many more adventures to take from ziplining to Via Ferrata climbing – and Sunrise is a wonderful homebase for them all.
StayOver follows the “Leave No Trace” philosophy and we ask that you do the same. If you explore, please take any trash back with you. If you find any trash while adventuring, it would be appreciated if you could pick that up as well and help us keep this amazing place clean.
