A Week RVing in Western Kentucky: Land Between the Lakes and More

After wrapping up our time in Chattanooga, TN and before heading toward the mountains of Fayetteville, WV, we spent a week in western Kentucky. We set up camp at Kentucky Dam Village State Resort Park, which gave us a great home base for visiting Land Between the Lakes and staying close to southern Illinois, where we had an event in Cairo. This was our second year attending the Cairo Magnolia Celebration, and we made the most of the trip with a few scenic drives, some outdoor exploring, and, of course, the usual work and RV chores in between. Here’s a day-by-day recap of what we did, plus tips if you’re planning your own visit to this part of the country.

Where to Stay Near Land Between the Lakes National Recreation Area

We really enjoyed our week camping at Kentucky Dam Village State Resort Park, but if you’re not a camper they also offer hotel rooms and cottages. Also surrounding LBL are Kenlake State Resort Park, which offers a lodge, cottages, and camping as well, and Lake Barley State Resort Park, with an especially pretty lodge, cottages, and cabins.

Day 1: Sunday Shopping

We had an uneventful drive from Tennessee to Kentucky. We camped at Kentucky Dam Village State Resort Park, since the main reason we were here was for an even later in the week in Cairo, IL- which is right on the IL/KY border. We got into camp with enough time to go grocery shopping and check out Twin Lakes Antique Mall.

Day 2: Monday at Land Between the Lakes

Monday, once we logged off work, we drove about 25 minutes to Land Between the Lakes National Recreation Area (LBL). This is the big thing to do in this area, and Josh had visited a few times. It’s a really large park with a lot of variety of activities. For our first day exploring LBL, we hiked the Center Furnace Trail. I love hikes like this that combine nature, history, and abandoned places! The furnace is near the Woodlands Nature Station too, so we headed there next. This is basically a small zoo of rehabilitated animals and we were just in time for their daily animal program. Today’s theme was turtles! (We love turtles.) The program was mainly one of the staff feeding the Nature Station’s snapping turtles and telling us about them. We were the only ones from the public there, so it turned into more of chatting about turtles and was really fun.

If you’re exploring Land Between the Lakes, having AllTrails+ is a game changer. You can download trail maps to use offline (which is very helpful in areas with no service), see real-time trail conditions, and stay on course with wrong-turn alerts. Try it free for 7 days here

On the way back from LBL, we stopped at Kentucky Dam to check out the visitor center. The visitor center had some good info and the parking lot had a nice view of the dam, but the best part was meeting the camphosts that were working the visitor center! They were such a nice couple and we spent a while just chatting about RV adventures and travel. The other memorable part of the dam was how weird driving over it was! On the way off the dam, especially, you drive on a raised lane that feels more like a sidewalk than a road. It was definitely one of those places that felt like we shouldn’t be there. 

Day 3: Tuesday at Mike Miller Park

For our Tuesday activity we checked out Mike Miller Park, which is a nearby county park. We started out on the disc golf course and played about half of the course before deciding to switch to something else. For Christmas our first year as full-timers I got Josh a pickleball set, but we hadn’t actually tried it out yet! Mike Miller Park had pickleball courts, and since no one was there to see how bad we were, we decided to play around. Josh has never played before and I haven’t played since high school gym class, so it was less of a game and more just messing around getting used to volleying. We had a blast though, and definitely will be looking up the rules and trying again soon.

Days 4 & 5: Wednesday and Thursday Meetings

Wednesday and Thursday were both meeting days for Josh, so we stayed at camp. Luckily, our campground was a good size for campground walks!

Day 6: More LBL and Patti’s on Friday

On Friday we returned to Land Between the Lakes for some more adventures, but it was on-and-off rainy that day, so we didn’t do quite as much as we would like. Land Between the Lakes is subdivided into multiple areas, so for this day we went to the Golden Pond area. We started off at the Elk and Bison Prairie. This is a 700 acre area that’s home to herds of bison and elk that you can see on a driving tour (if you’re lucky!). We saw 4 elk right off the bat, which was really exciting! Then we found one of the main bison herds hanging out together. We got a few good views from the road, but weren’t able to get a good angle for photos. If you ever visit here, I would definitely recommend binoculars- I really wish I had brought mine! After we said good-bye to the animals, we went to check out the Golden Pond visitor center, which had some exhibits on the history of the area and a gift shop. There’s also a planetarium here with regular shows, but we weren’t there at the right time.

On our way home, we stopped at Patti’s 1880 Settlement, which is a restaurant, hotel, shops, and all-around tourist trap. Honestly, the food photos online didn’t look appealing to us, so we just walked around, checked out some of the shops, and played mini golf. It’s definitely an interesting place and worth stopping by if you’re in the area.

We made one final-final stop on the way home at the Kentucky Dam Marina because we had been seeing signs for an on-the-water boat show. It ended up being less of a boat show and more of just a few dealers with boats out, but at least we finally saw the marina.

Day 7: Saturday in Cairo

On Saturday we headed into the southernmost part of Illinois for the main reason we were in the area- the annual Magnolia Celebration in Cairo. We had attended last year and fell in love with Cairo, so were really excited to go back. Our friend Erica, who’s a historic preservation architect, was even able to come down and join us. Besides the people from TCHPP we knew from last year, we also ran into another couple we knew from back home! It was a fun day and really inspiring to see the progress that city is making and meet more of the people fighting to save their history. 

Day 8: Sunday Travel

On Sunday we broke down camp and started heading east. Usually we use Harvest Hosts for our one night stops, but there weren’t any available in the area on the day we needed, so we ended up staying one night at Cabin Run Creek Campground. This is a small private campground that mostly does seasonal sites, but has a few nightly sites in the back. It was a nice stay and pretty quiet since it was midweek.

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