I spent the day after Christmas doing one of the most fun things: hiking!

We competed with the early morning shoppers and left town at 7:30am, with a group of 7 hikers. We drove to Virginia for two hours in a somewhat impressive rainstorm.

It was still raining at the trailhead, so we re-evaluated our hike. Most of us decided to go on, but Mom and Peter opted to head back due to footwear concerns. We started up the trail to Sandy Cave at 9:45am in a bit of a drizzle. It tapered off fairly quickly, and we continued uphill into the fog.

We gained almost 1200ft to the ridge as we crossed into Kentucky, before heading down the other side. As we approached Sand Cave, the rain began again. We put on our raincoats among the rhododendron bushes and hiked down the final stretch. We were greeted with a nice waterfall to the side of the cave. The football field sized cave stretched out behind the waterfall. We hiked up the sand hill and enjoyed lunch in the back of the cool cave.

The rain had ended by the time we left the cave. We hiked back around the waterfall, and gained the ridge again. Farther along the ridge, we detoued up to White Rocks. Back in the clouds, the view from the rocky outcrop was hidden. After about an hour and a half of descending, we returned to the car, with 9 miles of hiking under our belts.

View the rest of the pictures: Sand Cave & White Rocks on Flickr