Outdoor Kentucky
Posted on 12. Oct, 2009 by admin in Highlights
At 40,000 square miles big with just 4 million people, there’s a vast natural landscape out there for you to explore and enjoy, all captured in superb, sprawling national parks. Kentucky is home to the greatest length of navigable waterways and streams in the Lower 48 states, some 90,000 miles, host to the highest per capita number of deer and turkey in the US and home to the largest free-ranging elk herd east of Montana.
With all this space, visitors can choose from myriad fun activities, ranging from whitewater rafting to ATVing on quad bikes, from caving to kayaking, hiking or horseriding. If you prefer to drive, just roam the scenic driveways. Or if wildlife is your thing, take an organised spotting tour; watching for elks and eagles. There’s really something for everyone.
One unmissable experience is Mammoth Caves National Park in central Kentucky, the longest cave system known in the world, a World Heritage Site with a confirmed 365 miles of passageways. Take a lit-up tour of amazing natural phenomenon such as Grand Avenue, Frozen Niagara, and Fat Man’s Misery, or venture on your own paraffin-lamp tour or really get adventurous on a “wild” tour. Gawp at the bats but don’t eat the indigenous cave shrimps. Well, you can, but where you gonna cook ‘em!!!
There’s the Red River Gorge, full of fast streams and towering sandstone cliffs, best sampled by kayak, and don’t miss the mysterious Moonbows at Cumberland Falls, the only place in the western hemisphere to admire regular lunar rainbows above the waterfalls spray. It’s best seen near a full moon. The only other place on earth just as good is Victoria Falls in Africa.
