It has been a few (okay, more than a few) weeks since the last Flashback Friday post. But, I am hoping to get back on track with them starting this week!

Every so often I find myself feeling extremely homesick for Kentucky. I lived in Lexington for four and a half years while I went to school at the University of Kentucky for my bachelor's degrees. Lexington and the surrounding areas took a piece of my heart during that time. The feeling of missing that area comes in waves, but for the past week or so I have found myself deep underneath one of them; this post is a result of that. 

One of the (many) great things about Lexington is that it was only around an hour and a half drive to the Red River Gorge. The Red was one of my favorite escapes when I was feeling stressed, overwhelmed, or just needed a break from people and the city. It is such a large area that when I went on my hikes, depending on the trail I chose, I would rarely see more than one or two people, if any. That fact, combined with the tall cliffs, vast forest, and towering trees made me feel small, and often helped put things in perspective as I hiked. 

I was obsessed with the trails there, and ended up with enough photographs of them to do an entire (and lengthy) series on that alone. They were often narrow, and would twist and turn allowing me to only see so far ahead before it disappeared into the woods. Perhaps as would be expected, they were quite symbolic for me. 

It was almost always incredibly humid in the summer, which I normally cannot stand. However, the past few days I have found myself even missing that heavy, moist air that I was bound to encounter on my summer hikes. It was also always incredibly green in The Red during the spring and summer months. The light that filtered down through the dense leaves had a sort of green tint to it, and everything was lush and filled with life. Ferns and moss are some of my favorite plants, and there would be expansive areas filled with both of them, much to my delight. 

I have many more images of the area (both The Red and Lexington) that I will likely be posting in the coming Flashback Friday posts, so be sure to check back next Friday to see another piece of what I have been dreaming about lately.

And with that, happy Friday and have a wonderful weekend!