I love my long expeditions into the mountains as much as the next guy, maybe even a little bit more. Days on end out on the trail are what I live for, but when I can't get that kind of time I play weekend warrior just like everyone else.  Most of the time when I want to get out for a weekend trip I wander down to Red River Gorge, Kentucky and explore the scenic cliffs, majestic overhangs and dense forest canopy.  Sometimes though, I've wondered what else is out there in my reach for a weekend trip.  So, to answer this question, I've decided to pick a new destination every other weekend and find 5 more great places to hike within a sort drive of the city I call home, on-top of Red River Gorge.

1. Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore, Indiana
    Drive Time: ~4 hours & 20 minutes via I-65
    Destination: Dunewood Campground

Any trip out is a wonderful time, but to find new places to travel to makes it that much more exciting.  Some of these places, especially Nordhouse Dunes, I already plan on taking others back to.

​You often take off on a trip and expect one thing to happen, but little do you know everything is going to go in a completely different direction.  This story starts with myself and my group taking off for Crater Lake National Park from Cincinnati, Ohio on a Friday evening with 12 of us, packed to the gills in a passenger van with a long ride ahead and no idea what we had signed up for.
The drive was long but easy; I had previously traveled with my cousin Nathan and my buddy Alex and knew they would be able to pull through the long night shifts.  I figured the others could too, but I wanted to play it safe on the way out there.  After 34 hours on the road we finally arrived in Klamath Falls, Oregon to collect our snowshoes and head up the road to Crater.  We met the owner of a local shop who we rented shoes from and he told us what to expect up at Crater Lake, he also proceeded to tell us about wolves, bears and mountain lions and I could see some of my group member’s eyes widen.

It was a foggy day in town as we headed up Mt. Mazama (the long extinct volcano that holds Crater Lake in its teeth) but as we got closer the fog cleared and we could see the snowcapped peaks around the rim.  After a short time, we gathered our permits drove up to the rim, got everything situated (including the car that had to be left 3 miles back, 1,200’ down at the visitor’s center in case the road up to the rim closed due to high snow, PS thanks for the rides up and down Craig and Sharron) and we were off.  Our goal was to circumnavigate the entire caldera in 4 days and 3 nights, close to 30 miles all the way around.  In the summer this would be a pleasant and nice trip, with very little elevation change and beautiful views, but in the winter, you strap on snowshoes and sometimes posthole deep into the 7’ snowpack making the hike a whole different challenge.