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. Opposite page, clockwise from top left: Jenny Wiley State Resort Park, Prestonsburg; Gateway Regional Arts Center, Mt. Sterling; Rudy Fest, Morehead Above: Hillbilly Trails, Pike County kentuckytourism.com 51
The Official Kentucky Visitor's Guide The Official Kentucky Visitor's Guide 2024: Page 51
