Carter Caves State Resort Park Campground

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