Hanging With The Horses

Upon leaving Cincinnati, we had a short drive south on I-75 to Lexington, KY.  We were excited to explore this area of KY since we had never been east of Louisville.  Being the Labor Day holiday weekend, we were happy to score one of the last sites at the Kentucky Horse Park campground.  Several people we know have stayed here and had good things to say about it.  It is a huge park, 4 half circles, with 260 sites.  They also have a seperate area for tents and yet another area for electric only in a field. 

We arrived just after noon on Friday and were surprised to see that most of the sites were already full with weekend warriors.  Our site was on one of the outer loops and we wiggled our way into the site.  The sites are spacious but the asphalt rv pads are narrow without aprons so unfortunately we had to drive over the soft grass a bit to get into the site.  Each site has electric and water and the park has wifi, but with 260 sites occupied, it was pretty slow.  The pool was closed but the park did have activities all through the weekend, including a decorated golf cart parade and families were out and about walking and biking.  The campground is well kept with lots to do, 2 laundry rooms, 2 dump stations and a great store that has alot of groceries, sundries you night have forgotten and souvenirs.  We stayed through the weekend until Wednesday and it was fun to watch just about everyone leave Monday.  The dump station lines were long but orderly and soon it was just us and a handful of other campers enjoying the peace and quiet.  I will say, even though it was a holiday weekend and the park was full, everything quieted down around 10pm.  It could have been that the park is patrolled by the mounted police from the horse park.  

We took advantage of a special the KY Horse Park was having that Friday and bought our tickets for the park at the campground, which allowed us to visit and park for two days for only $6 each!  It is usually $20 per person plus parking.  Albeit, we weren't able to go into some of the barns but we did have a chance to see some dressage competition, a movie about the park and the surrounding horse farms, the museum and a chance to meet some of the past Kentucky Derby winners who are now retired and living a life of leisure at the park.

We even got to see a horse show that introduced some of the horses that live at the park.

Throughout the park there were memorials for other championship horses including Staff Sergeant Reckless, Man O War and several of his descendants.

We also went for a drive in the countryside to see some of the horse farms in the area.  It truly is the rolling hills of Kentucky and they treasure their horses.

Since we were in the area, we had to go check out the Ark Encounter.  We were amazed by the sheer size of it and enjoyed taking the day to explore the Ark and the beautiful grounds and small zoo.

This stop was another one that we quickly cobbled together after having to change our original plans due to the pandemic.  We were pleasantly surprised with the area and are excited to explore a new state next.