Kentucky State Parks – OsteoPraxis on the road

When researching the route home, and checking out State Parks along the way (Kentucky and Tennessee have such lovely State Parks) I found what for me was an absolute treasure. Knowing that everything has to be somewhere….but this was not like the little delights of stumbling on Hemingway’s birthplace, or the very first KFC…this one had me super excited and determined that we were going to stop there…..The John James Audubon State Park (yes that Audubon…the bird guy) in Henderson, Kentucky. Henderson is a small town on the northwest corner of Kentucky….handily on our way….but having found it…we were going there anyway.

It seemed like we had been travelling in thunderstorms and heavy rain since leaving home in May….and this short journey from Bowling Green to Henderson was no exception. The torrential rain in this part of the world is like driving into a waterfall…we have never experienced rain quite like it. Traffic on the highway slows to a crawl, then you hit the wall of water.

As we pulled into the campground there was yet another storm approaching…we backed the trailer into our spot as the wind lifted the tree branches and blew a flock of leaves through the park…..we nailed the spot….leapt out of the truck and into the trailer just as the heavens opened.

Even with the coverage of large shade trees the rain on the roof was thunderously loud…..the windows opaque with the sheer volume of water pouring down them. In minutes the culverts were overflowing and the tarmac roads turned into rivers.

It was impressive.

After the storm passed the surface water drained remarkably quickly ….demonstrating (we believe) just how ‘normal’ that kind of weather is in this part of the world, they’re prepared.

Kentucky is incredibly lush and green and John James Audubon State Park campground is no exception to that description. We had skillfully picked a site with beautiful tall mature shade trees.

A short trip into the park is the Audubon Museum, which along with the park, campground and museum are run by the Friends of Audubon. The trails run through the forest that Audubon himself habited and observed the rich variety of birdlife and other creatures that inspired his life’s work.

The short version of the Audubon story…he was an oddball of his time….an artistic creature who, with the unswerving support of his wife created an incredible collection of artwork depicting both birds and animals. He worked and pushed the print industry to catch up to the ability to reproduce his artwork in print form.

The museum follows the journey of his life, his work…and the work of his sons as they continued after him. Much of the exhibit is the plates from his original “The Birds of America’ volume. But there are a few original paintings. My favourite was one found in his personal belongings….it is not large like the engraved plate printings …its a small painting of a bird (Rose breasted Grosbeak), only a few inches in height on the page….but its such an extraordinary, almost magical little painting that I had to keep on going back to stare a it a little more. Sadly no photography allowed. ….and yes I had to temper the experience with the knowledge that he had killed every one of his subjects……but everything must be viewed with the context of the historical period……and it does not change the fact that he was an extraordinary artist.

Behind the museum is the trailhead for the many hiking trails through the forest. None of them particularly challenging from a physical point of view…(other than the crippling humidity)…but…for me anyway…this forest was like something out of a fairytale.

The tall trees, the bustling bird life….and the fluttering leaves creating a dappled light that almost had a life of its own.

My grandmother, my mother and her sisters were all great bird enthusiasts…..I hope they were all with me on my shoulder that day…they would have loved that place…I could easily imagine their voices and their rapt expressions following those paths.

A little way in, at the side of the path is this natural wonder….a grapevine…

from conversations we had with the rangers and some local people this is a well trodden path….a favourite stroll for locals….easy to see why…..

Down by the lake itself there are boardwalks…..it’s very swampy and with all the recent rain the water levels were high. As we reached the middle of the boardwalk we heard the plop plop of turtles dropping into the water….they were too quick…we missed them with the camera (as with most all of the birds..!!) Then…as we rounded the corner we spotted some more….

When we stopped for the blogtographer to get some shots….this little guy came and landed first on his hand (all of my pictures were discarded for being out of focus..!!) then moved to his leg so he could take a shot with the ‘big camera’…LOL….and a slightly different angle on the turtle cluster.

As we crossed the end of the lake….a bald eagle swooped…grabbed something and left again before I could even blink never mind grab my camera….

BTW…the next pic…..I am on the stairs…..checking out butterflies….

We found some really cool fungi…….

….and then we were back at the museum……

What a great place this park is…..I am so glad I spotted it on the parks list.

Our last day we drove over to the Wetland Trail…. (a five minute drive)

After even more torrential rain where the weather advisories were telling people to stay home and not travel the roads for fear of flash flooding, the wetlands were truly wet…..!!!

Thankfully there’s a boardwalk system……

The surrounding fields were filled with these hibiscus looking marsh mallows….and all kinds of other weird looking plants.

There is an island in the middle of the wetland with a loop trail around……it was pretty muddy….

To our delight we met this little chap…..who did his very best to look threatening……we think he’s a Red Swamp Crayfish, about 3″ long

About halfway around the loop the trail became too waterlogged to continue

So we made our way back through the mud…..

Another small soldier hopped out to challenge us…..the mud pile is his home…..judging by the number of these mud mounds he had lots of friends and neighbours around…..

By the time we got back to the boardwalk our boots had accumulated dinner plate sized lumps of claylike mud…walking was becoming awkward….

It took a bit of dabbling in puddles and scraping to leave it all behind…..it was heavy too…..

We did not succeed in taking pictures of birds or butterflies (black swallowtails and spicebush swallowtails )….but they were spectacular……maybe this is a place you should visit…..if you have not already…..!!!

Extra Pix

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.