I’m reluctant to say that we start the travel season without much of an itinerary…but we do start with either an overall theme (ie. route 66 last year) or an end point, and evolving as we find stuff along the way.
This year the idea was to follow the Bourbon trail through Kentucky and Tennessee……or at least use it as a theme to give us a direction of travel.
Researching Kentucky suggested we needed to be down around Lexington to start. So my first search was for an interesting camping spot somewhere around there. I tried to get in to Buffalo Trace State Park…but sadly it was not available for the dates I needed…..(boooo…!!) Searching Kentucky State parks I happened on Blue Licks Battlefield Resort State Park…..the name alone was irresistible (if you know me you will not be surprised at this…LOL)
I was panicking a bit as we approached Kentucky as I had been told some stories about the roads, ‘S’ bends and steep up and downs…….and the State Park I had picked for our first stop all of a sudden looked like it might be the middle of nowheresville.
The road was thankfully much less dramatic than I feared……and we arrived at this lovely little park run by a super friendly ‘friends of the park’ group. (…and the online booking site for Kentucky State parks is one of the best I have come across..!!)
Blue Licks Battlefield was the scene of the last big battle of the Revolutionary war……and Daniel Boone fought here…and lost his son in the battle.
The Blue Licks name and the Licking River, as strange as they sound, turn out to be because this area is an old inland sea. The area has significant salt deposits which were a big draw for roaming mammoths and mastadons ( I love that..!!) then latterly roaming bison herds. The word Trace in the place name refers to it being an ancient path carved out of the landscape where these great creatures walked. eg Buffalo Trace.
In the early days of European settlements the salt deposits served to provide income and trading goods…..and with a bit more ‘civilisation’ , health spas.
Imagine our surprise to find the remains of the Arlington Hotel…!!!
Even tho temps were in the mid 30’s C (low to mid 90’sF) the intrepid explorers set off to follow the Licking River Heritage trail using Alltrails.
Another little factoid for this trail is that it is reputed to be roughly the trail that Daniel Boone took to escape from the battlefield.
oh…and then there’s the local flora..…Shorts goldenrod..….I have never seen goldenrod any other colour than bright yellow….this stuff was very pretty…..
We set off early to follow the trail…it was not long, but the day was promising much heat and humidity.
Last year we had little opportunity for actual hikes and I had forgotten to carry a walking pole with me…..not for walking but on forest trails the lead person is constantly walking into lone spider silks that whisper across your skin…..carrying the big stick in front of your face helps reduce the unpleasant feathery yeuch factor on this one.
At the outer curve of this loop hike there is a reproduction of Tanner Station. A pioneering time operation to extract salt from the local salt springs…..and a little photo op.
It was a little more than an hour walk but we arrived back absolutely soaked between the heat and the humidity.
The park has a great little museum on site. An easy stroll from the campground and a good afternoon to be in air conditioning…!!!!
The ranger in the museum was great……very engaging. He showed us some of the artifacts he has reproduced using techniques from the first peoples of the area.
This is a tulip poplar bark basket.
Extra Pix
OsteoPraxis on the road 