Today's track: Jubilee — Jake Xerxes Fussell
Good Morning,
I've been wanting to write this one for a while.
If you've been reading my morning emails, you know I spend most of my time in the Louisville real estate world — off-market deals, creative financing, helping people build wealth through property. That's home base. But every once in a while, something crosses my desk that makes me stop everything and pay attention. Not because the numbers are good (they are), but because the story is good. The kind of story where you can feel the opportunity before you can even calculate it.
This is one of those stories. And it starts with a flood that never happened.
In the 1960s, the Army Corps of Engineers decided to dam the Red River in eastern Kentucky. The plan would have flooded the entire gorge — every 300-million-year-old cliff face, every ancient rock arch, every trail cut into the sandstone over centuries. Gone. Underwater. Forever.
The locals said no.
They fought it for over two decades. Supreme Court Justice William O. Douglas led a protest hike with 600 people through the gorge in 1967 to show the country what was at stake. And in 1993, the Red River finally received its Wild and Scenic River designation — permanently protecting the gorge from the kind of development that would destroy it.
I think about that a lot. A community of people who loved a place so much they spent twenty years making sure nobody could take it away. That kind of stubbornness is rare. And it's the reason Red River Gorge still exists the way it does today.
What happened next is the part that matters to us.
Instead of being buried under a reservoir, Red River Gorge became one of the most beloved outdoor destinations in America. Over 3,000 climbing routes carved into sandstone that predates the dinosaurs. Rock and Ice magazine named it one of America's best crags. Skyscanner featured it in their 2026 "Elsewhereism" guide as a top U.S. destination for solo travel — part of a movement toward quieter, crowd-free destinations that Google Trends shows is at a five-year high. National Geographic just published a feature on its emergence as an eco-tourism hotspot. This place is having a moment.
And the growth trajectory? It's not slowing down. It's accelerating. 2024 was Kentucky's third consecutive record-breaking year for tourism — 80 million travelers and $10.1 billion in direct visitor spending, up 3.8% over 2023. That kind of momentum doesn't happen by accident.
Let me give you the numbers on Red River Gorge specifically, because they're worth seeing all in one place: 750,000+ visitors a year — with projections to double by 2030. Over 100,000 annual climber visits. 695 active short-term rentals in the market averaging $214 a night, with Stanton listings pulling $231. Occupancy running at 57%. AirDNA — the industry standard for short-term rental analytics — ranked Red River Gorge as the number one short-term rental market in the entire country, with the average listing generating $45,000 a year in revenue. They also ranked it the fourth fastest-growing real estate market in the United States — 6.9% year-over-year growth, ahead of Aspen, Syracuse, and every other outdoor destination on the list. And all of this in a market that most investors still haven't heard of.
For context, that's a market outperforming destinations with ten times the name recognition. This is what early-stage Gatlinburg looked like. This is what Sedona looked like before it became a billion-dollar tourism economy.
Except most people haven't figured that out yet.
The state of Kentucky has.
Tourism is already Kentucky's third-largest industry — $14.3 billion in economic impact in 2024, supporting 97,394 jobs. That's a third straight record year. Outdoor recreation alone generates $8.4 billion in consumer spending and $552 million in state and local taxes. But what caught my attention is how specifically the Commonwealth is betting on Red River Gorge. The Kentucky Tourism Development Act offers qualifying projects 25% to 50% cost recovery over 10 to 20 years, and in 2024 alone, the state approved a record $256 million in KTDA projects.
That's just the start. Senate Bill 63, signed in 2025, created a dedicated framework for trail and outdoor recreation development statewide. Kentucky has designated over 30 official Trail Towns, with RRG at the heart of that network. The Appalachian Regional Commission awarded over $1 million to fund a comprehensive master plan for the four-county RRG corridor — and they brought in Stantec, one of the largest consulting firms in the world, to lead it.
And here's one that surprised even me: the climbing economy alone has grown 129% in eight years, from $3.8 million to $8.7 million annually, supporting over 100 local jobs. People aren't just visiting. They're building lives around this place.
Now here's the part I find most interesting — and this is really what made me sit up.
There's a gap in the Red River Gorge lodging market that almost nobody is addressing. On one end, you've got primitive camping and off-grid sites starting at $12 a night — no climate control, no kitchen, bring all your own gear. On the other end, you've got luxury treehouses and cliff-suspended cabins running $250 to $600 a night. In between? Almost nothing. Especially for the people who are actually coming.
The core RRG visitor is a 25-to-45-year-old college-educated professional — 84% hold at least a bachelor's degree, 40% have advanced degrees. They're earning $55,000 to $120,000 a year. They want to sleep well, eat something warm, and get back on the wall the next morning. They don't need a $400 treehouse, and they don't want to haul a tent and a camp stove three miles through the woods. They want something right-sized, right-priced, and right there. And that option barely exists right now.
Experience-driven travel is the number one trend in the short-term rental market for 2026. The global glamping market is a $3.5 billion industry growing at over 10% a year — projected to double by 2031 — with the average glamping stay now commanding $251 a night, up 21% in just two years. Tiny homes, glamping tents, nature-immersive stays — that's where the demand is surging, especially among 18-to-32-year-olds who account for nearly 44% of all glamping revenue. And Red River Gorge has 750,000 people a year showing up with nowhere in between to stay.
When a state puts that kind of legislative and financial muscle behind a region, and the market has a gap that obvious, it tells you something. Red River Gorge is growing no matter what. The only question is who gets to be part of how it grows.
But here's the thing the numbers don't tell you — and honestly, it's the reason I'm writing this email instead of just forwarding a spreadsheet.
There's a feeling you get at Red River Gorge that's hard to explain to someone who hasn't been there. You spend the day on the wall or out on the trail — legs burning, hands chalked, lungs full of air that doesn't taste like anywhere else. You're tired in a way that has nothing to do with exhaustion. You're alive. And then you walk into Miguel's, sit down with people who just did the same thing, and the food tastes better than it has any right to. Because you earned it. Every bite. Every sip. Every slow breath on the porch while the sun drops behind the ridge.
Red River Gorge fills you up in ways you didn't know you were empty. And the almost unfair part? It's an hour from Louisville. An hour from Lexington. Two hours from Cincinnati. This isn't some far-flung wilderness you have to plan a whole life around getting to. It's right there — close enough to step away from the noise on a Friday afternoon and come back on Sunday feeling like a completely different person.
Wendell Berry wrote a whole book about this — The Unforeseen Wilderness, his love letter to Red River Gorge, written over four seasons in the early '70s when the dam fight was still raging. He said it better than I ever could: “What you are doing is exploring. You are undertaking the first experience, not of the place, but of yourself in that place.” That's it. That's what RRG does to people. The numbers work — obviously. But the feeling works too. And that's not something you can manufacture. That's something 300 million years of geology and a community of people who refused to let it be destroyed gave us.
The people who live and work in the gorge have spent decades proving that you can grow a destination without destroying what makes it special. The Cliffview Resort established a permanent climbing easement with the Red River Gorge Climbers' Coalition — covering over 30 cliff faces and 3.5 miles of cliff line — so climbers will have access to these walls forever. The RRGCC itself now holds over 1,800 acres of protected climbing land, including a historic 718-acre acquisition in 2025. Conservation and commerce aren't at odds here. They're the same strategy.
And that's exactly the approach behind the Red River Gorge Resort.
The first community is going in this summer — ten 450-square-foot tiny homes and ten glamping tents, situated directly in the heart of the gorge. Each unit has a kitchen, climate control, and Starlink internet. The community shares fire pits, a sauna, a cold plunge, and hot tubs — because when you've been climbing all day, recovery matters as much as the route. It's being managed by Ember Stays in partnership with Red River Gorge Cabin Rentals, who already operate over 125 units in the area. These are people who know this market cold. The fund manager, Mark Anderson, is overseeing the build and the capital structure through AGTC Capital.
Tiny homes are projected around $170 a night. Glamping tents around $115. That's the sweet spot — right between the primitive sites and the luxury cabins, exactly where the demand is and the supply isn't.
I wanted to share this with you because it's the kind of thing I'd want someone to tell me about. A place I already love, a market that's already growing, and a model that actually makes sense for the people who are already showing up. If you've ever thought about owning something at Red River Gorge — a place where you can go climb on the weekends, bring your family, host friends, walk into Miguel's like you belong there, and have it pay for itself when you're not there — this is worth a conversation. Because here's what most people don't think about: owning a short-term rental in the gorge doesn't just build wealth. It gives you and the people you love a key to one of the most beautiful places in America — whenever you want it. Your weekends. Your kids' spring breaks. Your best friend who needs to get out of the city. The income is real. But so is the access.
Mark Anderson is happy to walk you through the details. No pressure, no hard sell — just the numbers, the plan, and an honest conversation about whether it's the right fit. Reply to this email and I'll make the introduction.
Red River Gorge survived a dam. It survived being overlooked. And now it's becoming one of the most exciting outdoor destinations in the country. I'm glad the next chapter is being written the right way.
Hope you find this as interesting as I do.
Warmly,
Rob Bergeron
Owner–Realtor at Award-Winning Winner Realty
PS: Meet Colleen, the real brains around here.