Hosted by Campus Recreation at UK, adventure trips provide students with many opportunities to explore Kentucky and other outdoor wonders.

This semester alone, Campus Recreation’s Outdoor Adventures program has gone hiking, white water rafting and rock climbing.

Sophomore Kiley Colgan has been participating in adventure trips since her freshman year.

“I love being outside. I think nature has so many different things to teach us,” Colgan said.

During her freshman year, Colgan went white water rafting twice: once in October 2021 and once in spring 2022.

“I would rate the experience a 10 out of 10,” she said.

Colgan also said that students don’t need to know people in order to start going on trips.

“You make friends by spending more time with people,” she said.

Sophomore Sophia Goodin said she would participate in an adventure trip if given the chance.

“It’s a really good chance to get to see different parts of Kentucky outside of campus as well as getting to meet new people,” Goodin said.

There are still plenty of adventure trips that students can sign up for this semester, including rock climbing, hiking and hot chocolate and cave kayaking.

Colgan is also a part of the Snowcats club on UK’s campus. Snowcats is a skiing, snowboarding and outdoors club at the university. The club plans an annual snowboarding and ski trip every school year.

Last year, the club went to Aspen, Colorado, for its annual trip.

“We went skiing, explored the town of Aspen, went shopping and even learned how to order a lift to and from the grocery store,” Colgan said.

This year the club plans on going to Breckenridge, Colorado, from Jan. 1–6, 2023.

Breckenridge is known for its ski resorts, mountain scenery and endless recreation fun.

Colgan encouraged anyone to join Snowcats if they have any interest in outdoor adventures.

“I get to be friends with people that I met through Snowcats. It’s very fun; I made a lot of new memories and met a lot of new people through joining,” Colgan said.

Snowcats has monthly meetings that students can attend. The group discusses monthly and annual trips for the semester and school year.

To learn more about Snowcats, students can visit the club’s Facebook page. To learn more about UK Outdoor Adventure, students can visit its website.

These photos were taken on April 9th, 2022 in Long Creek, South Carolina. They were taken by Whitewater Chattooga.