Star Gap Arch Trail

Hello and welcome to MY FAVORITE ARCH OF THE GORGE! I fell in love with this arch the very moment I laid eyes on it. The whole surrounding area is beautiful too!
To begin this trail, you will want to park at the Auxier Ridge parking lot at the end of the vehicle-traffic portion of Tunnel Ridge Road and hike back the “foot-travel-only” portion of the road (behind the gate) for about 0.58 miles. This trail is at an obvious turn-off to the left!
From the parking lot, this trail is about 1 miles to the arch (so about 2 miles round trip), BUT there is a LOT more to hike and discover out there (Star Gap Trail), so I suggest doing that, or combining this with Double Arch and/or Auxier Ridge trails!

Things to know about the route to Star Gap Arch: There is a rocky slope “scramble” portion to get down to the arch. It can be intimidating from above, but a good “butt slide” should do the trick to get down, and I’ve never had an issue getting back up with good traction shoes. Although, if you want, instead of going down the slope, you can take a left when you see it and wind along the rock until it kinda intersects with the bottom (I feel like that was confusing, but long story short – you can bypass the “rock scramble” portion if you’re not feeling *spicy*). EDIT: Since I made this video, someone came by and cut down the tree I show as a “turn off” point for the rock scramble in the video below…You can still look for exposed rock and the clump of trees at the bottom!

I’ve hiked the trail to this arch many times with my small dog, Pippin, and never have had an issue. I would think that (for the most part), kids and dogs would do okay on this trail!

Another cool thing to note: You might notice growth of White-Haired Goldenrod underneath the arch! This species of plants ONLY grows in rock shelters of the Red River Gorge!! So, PLEASE enjoy with pictures only and watch your step! 🙂