N is for Natural Bridge State Park: A to Z Blogging Challenge

It's April and you know what that means: The AtoZ Blogging Challenge! For those who haven't played along before, the AtoZ Blogging Challenge asks bloggers to post every day during April (excepting Sundays), which works out to 26 days, one for each letter of the alphabet. In my opinion, it's the most fun if you choose a theme.

My theme this year is Places in my Heart, all about the places I've been and loved and that have mattered to me in a lasting sense.

For my regular readers, you'll see more than the usual once-a-week posts from me this month. I'm having a great time writing them, so I hope you enjoy reading them, too.

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N is for Natural Bridge State Park

I'm a woods girl. Nothing soothes my soul like time among the trees. Maybe it's the extra oxygen, maybe it's something more spiritual than that. I don't know. But I do know that it's head-clearing and heart-lightening to spend time in leafy light. 

When I was an undergraduate student at Morehead State University in Morehead, Kentucky, I was always running off to the news. Morehead itself is in the Daniel Boone National Forest and there's a lot of state park land, caves, and amazing rock formations in the area. I explored like crazy during those years. 

One of my favorite places for Natural Bridge State Park in Red River Gorge. It's named, of course, for the Natural Bridge, a wide platform of rock you can climb and walk on. 

It's odd because, generally, I am a bit afraid of heights. I don't like stairwells where I can see between the stairs, or looking out the window of a skyscraper. But when the heights are not human-made, I have a little more faith in them. I want to be on top, looking out at what nature has made. 

I once sat on the bridge at this park watching a storm move towards me across the horizon, lightning streaking the darkening sky. I stayed until the wind was whipping my hair around and my jacket was damp with the rain. I can still feel the charge in the air when I close my eyes. 

Places of rock and tree are magic. I truly believe so.