Carter Caves State Resort Park Campground

We loved the amazing hike available right from the campground. The trees, ledges, rock bridges are wonderful! The campground is crowded (Mon-holiday May Weekend), sites are small and unlevel. We didn’t bother hooking up utilities because they were Soooo far from the camping pad. Since we love the beauty of the area and the hiking, we will go again but weekday stay to avoid crowded noisy campground.

First off, the road coming in to the park is quite a nail-biter if you have a big or long rig - narrow, with drop-offs. Secondly, center sites are very close together and many sites slope downward quite a bit. Third, the water and electric poles are shared between two sites, so make sure you have long and extra connections for both. In mid-May, the ticks had to be removed every time we took the dog out, even if just along the roads. The closest full grocery that we found was about half hour away in Grayson, so stock up before coming.

All that being said, it’s beautiful here! The Cave tours are not too costly and are very interesting. During the week it was quiet. Staff were all friendly.

We arrived on a Thursday in May. It’s a beautiful setting and the hiking is great! The campground is crowded unless you’re on an outside ring.
We loved it until it filled up on Friday night when young boys started riding their bikes through our site and the dog next door started barking and barking. There doesn’t seem to be a campground host.

Carter Caves State park, is amazing. Well worth the visit for the caves, hiking trails, etc. The campground however, is way too dense. You feel like your cooking your neighbors dinner you’re so close. The particular weekend we were there, there were roughly 100 kids. And yes, I want kids to have fun, but the screaming, noisy electric rides, riding in the middle of the main road, walking through others campsites etc was just way too much. And just fyi, site 24 is VERY unlevel. Be sure to take extra buildup for your electric Jack. OH, the Verizon reception is very misleading on here. Maybe 1 bar part of the time. Not good at all

We stayed at Carter Caves SRP over Thanksgiving 2021. Being the off-season, our experience is not likely to represent non-off-season stays.

We did not examine the literature closely enough to realize that all water in the main camping area was shut-off in November. After scooting ourselves into a tricky backup parking situation (for a 40'-rig + tree placement) in site 80 (someone had already taken out the campsite's number post!), we realized there was no water coming from our spigot and had to drive over to the horse campground (close) to fill-up for the week. The bathrooms are also locked during the off-season in the main area, but again, the horse campground offers hot showers and restrooms (~1/2 walk). Interestingly, the laundromat (attached to the campground office) is open and working.

Our site (and many of the sites) wasn't overly level - but also wasn't obnoxiously not level. We snuck some blocks under the driver's side tires and got to level.

The campsites in this campground are close together - which is fine when no one else is here. It was incredibly quiet during our stay. A few nights there were a few other rigs in the campground - but mostly it was just us. The horse campground was full from Friday-Sunday, but otherwise completely open.

The trails here are beautiful and interesting. Most of the activities were closed while we were visiting (mini-golf, pool, horseback riding). There is a restaurant and lodge about a mile walk from the campground.

The road into the campground is traversable but winding.

The Verizon cell signal here is interesting. We had a great signal at site 80 - and noted a solid signal throughout the campground - but the horse campground has a 'cut-off' zone at the far end near the bathrooms. There is no Verizon signal throughout much of the park itself. The data speeds were fast enough to perform most tasks, although video-conferencing was jumbly at times. AT&T was worse than Verizon at our campsite.

We stopped here for two nights on our trip through Kentucky. Water and electric only. The connections are far from site so needed our extenders but not all sites. We pre-registered so arrival was quick.

So much to do here-we could have stayed a week. We toured three caves: Cascade, Salt Peter, and X-Cave. All were very good. Did a few of the short hikes. They were great but didn’t have time to do longer ones.

There is a pool, mini golf, regular golf, lodge with a Tavern. Boat ramp, fishing.

Roads are narrow but can drive RV up/down. Sites are older state park so not very level but paved. Dump station is on the way out.

We got our 45' MH up the tight curvy access road and through the tighter campground roads but did I mention it was tight ?!? That said, this is a quiet park during the week and very busy and active with families on weekends. Lots of recreational options from caving, to hiking, to horseback riding, to fishing and more. Full review at https://ourepicfieldtrip.wpcomstaging.com/2018/10/26/campground-reviews-carter-caves-state-resort-park-olive-hill-ky/

One of my favorite roads into a state park so far, about 1 mile of winding road with rock and trees on one side and a running stream on the other....like a tunnel of nature, just beautiful...as i pulled into the campground i looked at all the sites with the trailers parked next to each other with nothing in between saying to myself, well it had a great entrance...pulled into the camp office, got my ticket and found my site along the edge of the woods, separate from everyone in the middle and really a nice spot! had 3 bars on my jetpack and 2 on the iphone lte...took a few pics...cant speak of the rest rooms or rest of camp, only stayed one night so i gave good to a couple categories