We even picked up a family story at the park. Unfortunately, we didn’t have time to take one of the pony rides or guided horseback rides offered daily - although we did come away from the park’s lovely gift shop with a stuffed toy pony, which, of course, received the moniker “Carter.” About half are multiuse trails, open to horseback riding and mountain biking. The park’s 45-acre Smoky Valley Lake is a popular site for canoeing and fishing.Ībout 26 miles of trails crisscross the parks. (Don’t you wish all traveling companions were so easy to please?)Īlthough we concentrated on Carter Caves’ natural wonders during our short stay, the park also features an outdoor swimming pool, a large campground, a nine-hole golf course and a miniature golf course. “It’s the greatest day of my life,” he said as he opened his hands and watched the briefly beloved beast scamper away. My family and I also took a separate tour of Cascade Cave, which includes a 30-foot underground waterfall, and a morning nature walk to another natural arch.Īt one stop, my son, Charles - who loves catching, examining and releasing small critters - caught and released his first Eastern fence lizard, a colorful little creature we haven’t seen in central Ohio. The strangest story of all was that little Cave Branch - no more than ankle-deep - could carve such gargantuan tunnels through solid rock. But their immense scale became apparent the closer I got. All of the arches, formed as parts of caves collapsed, looked rather small whenever I approached them. In a way, the park’s natural arches - places where light and darkness mingle in a fascinating dance - are more impressive than the caves. Natural Arch carries a road on top and is said to be the site of a fatal auto plunge in the 1930s, which accounts for its role on the ghost tour. The stops included the park’s huge Natural Arch, one of several such formations at Carter Caves. But viewing the dim landscape by lantern light was a nonstop treat. One involving the flooding Cave Branch and a boy trapped in a dance hall once built above the creek was downright intense. Some of the tales were more believable - and scarier - than others. Our guide, park naturalist Sam Plummer, related eerie local events, myths and a few shaggy (ghost) dog stories, including one involving Daniel Boone and a footprint-shaped hole in the cave wall. The evening “Legends and Ghost Stories” tour took a small group of guests through “haunted” parts of the parks, including X Cave - so named because the cave’s two tunnels cross and form an elongated “X” at the center. Today, Cave Branch still performs a disappearing act at several sites in the park as it plunges underground to do its cave-carving work before reappearing farther downstream.įour of the park’s caves usually are open for tours, although two have been temporarily closed to prevent the importation of white-nose syndrome, a bat disease. Through the eons, water - including the burbling Cave Branch and Tygarts creeks - has carved passages through the limestone strata. Thin layers of limestone lie under the park. Those caves give Carter Caves its character - and its name, of course. Several tours of the park’s caves are also offered each day. (Fortunately for all, I had left my mandolin at home.) We had an assortment of programs to choose from each day during our midweek stay, including craft-making, archery lessons, scavenger hunts, canoe trips and even a “Pickin’ at the Caves” jam session. Kentucky state parks do a great job of scheduling visitor programs during the busy season, and Carter Caves is no exception. At meals in the lodge restaurant, we watched through big picture windows as hummingbirds sipped nectar at feeders and a doe and her fawn frequented a salt lick on the lawn. Our room was comfortable, with a small porch overlooking a thick woods behind the lodge. We stayed in the park’s pleasant Lewis Caveland Lodge. And, for me, a stay at the park seems a perfect way to introduce my 7-year-old twins (and my wife) to the home of my maternal ancestors. Later, the family would camp at Carter Caves during visits “back home.”īut generations age, then pass away, and with them often go the ties that once bound a family to a special place.īefore I visited last month with my own family, I hadn’t been to Carter County in at least 35 years.Even for those with no family ties, Carter Caves is a wonderful place to explore the natural beauty of northeastern Kentucky. Some of my earliest childhood memories are of trips to my great-grandmother’s old farmhouse. Although my mom’s family moved to Columbus when she was a teenager, they would often return to visit. My mother was raised in a hollow not more than 4 miles from the park. The rocky beauty of Carter Caves State Resort Park - with its twisting caverns, steep cliffs and limestone bluffs - was once as familiar to me as my grandma’s country cooking.
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