2023-12-29 09:37:28
Lace up your hiking boots for the more than 600 miles of trails within the Daniel Boone National Forest. Other pursuits? Fishing, wildlife viewing and dropping your jaw at sandstone-cliffs- and-forested-slopes scenery.
Can’t make it west? We gotcha. The Grand Canyon of the South stretches across the Kentucky/Virginia border at Breaks Interstate Park near Elkhorn City. Raft raging rapids; hike or mountain bike miles of rugged trails; scale the Appalachian sandstone.
The lure of the lake’s beauty, with its wooded coves and forested shoreline, brings out anglers and boaters for getaways to Staffordsville’s Paintsville Lake State Park, now with a wheelchair-accessible fishing boardwalk and kayak launch.
Named for Appalachian author and former poet laureate of Kentucky, the Jesse Stuart State Nature Preserve near Greenup is a place of peace and reflection, one filled with the hills and hollows that figured heavily into Stuart’s writings.
Staffordsville’s U.S. 23 Country Music Highway Museum brings together country music fans and Eastern Kentucky’s country music legends — Keith Whitley, Loretta Lynn and Chris Stapleton among them — through personal memorabilia and Thursday evening Front Porch Pickin’ sessions. The Country Music Heritage Hall at Ashland’s Highlands Museum & Discovery Center likewise connects fans to stars, including Billy Ray Cyrus and The Judds.
Surrounded by the historic architecture, murals and other treasures of the Mt. Sterling Art Trail is the Gateway Regional Arts Center, home of Kenyan art, mosaics and sculptures, gallery exhibitions of up-and-coming artists, theater performances and arts workshops.
Drama unfolds on Pikeville’s Hatfields and McCoys Historic Feud Driving Tour. Meander through the foothills of the Appalachian Mountains to key sites connected to the bloody 30-year feud, including the Hanging Site of Ellison “Cotton Top” Mounts.
Listen to marquee bluegrass bands on top of Morehead’s Poppy Mountain during Rudy Fest, a five-day music extravaganza held in June that has all the feels of a big family reunion. Bite into tiger ears and fried apple pies at Paintsville’s October Kentucky Apple Festival, featuring dozens of food booths and crafters from all over the United States.
Since 1794!
They don’t fold up the sidewalks — quite the opposite, actually — but they do close downtown streets to traffic during Mt. Sterling October Court Days, Kentucky’s oldest running festival. It’s four days of bustling, tent-lined streets, music, crafts, antiques, shopping adventures, country ham and lively crowds.
Level Up or Down
Adventures mild to wild happen at Carter Caves State Resort Park in Olive Hill — from 18-hole mini golf and gem mining to caving and rappelling, from private patio lodge rooms to backcountry “roughing-it” campsites, from rocking chair evenings fireside to hiking along cliffs and arches.
Find History, Activities at Hidden Treasure
Exploring Sandy Hook’s Laurel Gorge Cultural Heritage Center is a journey of discovery, learning about Appalachian life through dozens of interactive exhibits, plus workshops and events; kayaking the scenic Laurel Creek; fishing the Little Sandy River; hiking to views of the breathtaking gorge; encountering wildlife and natural wonders and shopping locally made goods from the Foothills Artisan Center.
Humble Home, Hallowed Ground
The Queen of Country Music grew up in a century-old Butcher Holler mountain cabin. Loretta Lynn’s Home Place reflects the 1930s-1940s childhood of the singer/ songwriter and self-taught guitarist who grew up in Van Lear coal country. Learn more at the Coal Miners’ Museum, tucked in a coal company’s former headquarters.
Postcard Pastimes
The weather is fine. So are the boating and birding. Wish you were here at Prestonsburg’s Jenny Wiley State Resort Park and Dewey Lake. Reel in a largemouth bass. Mountain bike the Dawkins Line Rail Trail. Learn about the park’s namesake pioneer heroine at the Nature Center.
Backroads and Byways
Enjoy a variety of farm experiences throughout the year in Louisa and Lawrence and Boyd Counties or visit during September’s farm-centric Heritage Harvest Tour, a self-guided tour through Appalachia to stop in at Savage Farms Winery and other open houses, purchase honey from local beekeepers and take part in other farm activities offered.
Ashland: 606-329-1007, visitaky.com
Boyd County: 606-585-4770, visitboydcounty.com
Elliott County: visitelliottcounty.com
Frenchburg/Menifee County: 606-768-9000, frenchburgky.com
Grayson/Olive Hill/Carter County: 606-474-5366, facebook.com/cartercountytourism
Greenup County: 606-473-6440, greenupcountyky.gov/tourism
Louisa/Lawrence County: 606-638-0078, visitlcky.com
Morehead/Rowan County: 606-780-4342, visitmorehead.com
Mount Sterling: 859-498-8732, mtsterlingtourism.com
Owingsville/Bath County: 606-674-6346, facebook.com/bathcountykytourism
Paintsville: 606-297-1469, paintsvilletourism.com
Pikeville/Pike County: 606-432-5063, tourpikecounty.com, visitpikeville.com
Prestonsburg: 606-886-1341, prestonsburgky.org
West Liberty: 606-743-3330, visitwestliberty.com
Plan your regional road trip!
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