Cumberland Gap National Historical Park
Middlesboro, Ky.
Visited: October 29, 2005
NPS Site Visited: 274 of 353
NPS Website; Local Website
 WHAT IS IT?
Mountain crossing where hundreds of thousands of pioneers from 1775 to 1810 crossed the Appalachians and into the unknown frontier.
BEAUTY (7/10)
Present-day westward travelers no longer take U.S. Route 25A over the Cumberland Gap. In 1996, a tunnel was built that burrows under this famed landscape. As a result, views of the Gap are less spoiled by screaming cars and dull asphalt. The twisting road that leads up to the Pinnacle Overlook offers stunning looks at the land below.
HISTORIC SIGNIFICANCE (6/10)
For millennia, bison traversed the path over the Appalachian Mountains and through the Cumberland Gap. American Indians followed the worn animal trails, using the Gap for their own trade and transportation needs for 10,000 years.
In 1775, Daniel Boone blazed his famous Wilderness Trail over this same well-worn Gap and into the promised land of Kentucky. By 1792, Kentucky’s population had swelled to over 100,000 and it was admitted into the Union as the 15th United State.
Park literature and accepted historical yarns call the Cumberland Gap “the first doorway to the West” and infer that the Gap was the only place anyone ever crossed the Appalachian Mountains. None of this is true. For example, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania was founded in the 1750’s, was regarded then as being the Western frontier and sits west of the Appalachians.
The Daniel Boone-Cumberland Gap story is an important American frontier creation myth but was not the only story of westward expansion. Cumberland Gap NHP, at best, serves as an Ellis Island-like place for long-time Kentuckians, a place where they can trace their roots and know where their great-great-great-great-great grandparents once passed.
CROWDS (5/10)
We saw few people; how could all the guided tours be sold out? That is a question for the ages. Permits were still available for ridgeline pack in camping along the Gap’s many trails. We saw group of hardy travelers apply. Sub-freezing temperatures, wet, foggy weather…no thank you.
EASE OF USE/ACCESS (1/5)
The Cumberland Gap is no longer a traveler’s hub. The nearest lodging is in the wholly inhospitable town of Middlesboro, Ky. The Park’s entrance is reached via the first exit of U.S. Route 25A west of the Cumberland Gap Tunnel.
A road up from the Visitor Center leads to the Pinnacle Overlook that provides vistas of the Gap. Most of the Park, however, is accessible only by hiking trails, one of which, the Ridge Trail, follows the Kentucky-Tennessee border for over 15 miles.
CONCESSIONS/BOOKSTORE (4/5)
The Southern Highland Craft Guild has recently opened their fifth store at the Cumberland Gap NHP Visitor Center. The Guild’s products are some of the best traditional handmade products found anywhere in the United States. The selection at all five stores varies a great deal. The biggest drawback of the Cumberland Gap store is its relative lack of square footage, especially when compared to the sprawling Parkway Craft Center and Folk Art Center, both located along the Blue Ridge Parkway.
COSTS (2/5)
Park entry is free, Gap Cave tours are $8 per person. We had not intended on spelunking. Good thing because tickets had already sold out for the next two days.
From May 1 to November 13, two Ranger-led tours leave daily for the deep woods Hensley Settlement. These tours run $14 per adult. These tours also sell out in advance.
RANGER/GUIDE TO TOURIST RATIO (2/5)
There are Rangers, but to get their attention you need to pay for a guided tour.
TOURS/CLASSES (4/10)
We were disappointed by the Park’s new film, a 23-minute, hi-def gargantuan screen, elaborate costume drama called Daniel Boone and the Westward Movement. The film speaks more to legend than historical fact, numbs you with inane re-enactments and smothers you with superficial conclusions. In addition, every single scene takes place with a peak fall colors background, just vexing to this pair of autumn foliage hunting failures.
 FUN (4/10)
Two things at Cumberland Gap NHP turned our frowns upside down: the Southern Highland Craft Guild and the Pinnacle Overlook. We stopped grumbling about the sold-out tours and ridiculous movie when a carpenter beckoned us over to look at puzzle boxes he was shaping. We forgot about the Visitor Center altogether when the Nissan started winding steeply up the drive to the Overlook, crossing through early morning sunbeams along the way. At one point, we pulled the car over and ran out into the road cameras in hand to try and capture some of the glorious otherworldly light streaming through the trees.
WOULD WE RECOMMEND? (4/10)
Only if you plan on: a) staying in a metro center like Knoxville, Tenn. or Lexington, Ky. and making a day trip or b) getting a backcountry permit and doing some serious ridge hiking. Cumberland Gap is an either/or choice. A night in Middlesboro, Ky, a dry town where Arby’s is the best option for an evening meal and inflated motel prices are the norm, is almost enough to negate the beauty of the artisan crafts and the Park’s ridgeline overlooks.
TOTAL 39/80
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