Kentucky Horse Park Campground

We stayed here for two nights on our way up north. Lovely clean campground. The 50amp plug at our site had an open ground but we were able to use the 30amp. Bathrooms were clean, didn’t use shower. Despite being pretty busy with tons of golf carts the park was very peaceful. Our site was on the outer loop which I recommended as most back up to trees for a bit more privacy. My BUT comes from the fact that there is no connecting pathway from the loops to the bathrooms (which are all in the center). Others have commented on this as well.
The Legacy Trail connects you directly to downtown Lexington, we rode our bikes in and it was fabulous. What an incredible resource. Unfortunately the Kentucky Horse Park museum is closed on Monday and Tuesday so we weren’t able to visit. We did explore the grounds which were lovely.
Super convenient to I75, will definitely stay again.

We came in and went to our assigned site 83. We could not get in because the trees hung down with only a 9 to 10 foot clearance. In fact we hit a few low hanging trees throughout the park. They were very nice and moved us to site 166. We did have low hanging trees but were able to get in. I had to trim a few branches that were hitting our 40 foot Tiffin. The wifi just did not work for us and the management could not provide a fix for the "failure to obtain an IP address" message. Other than for waking up to the blaring speaker at 7AM the noise was acceptable.

We have stayed here twice in 2022. Had a great experience both times. We have a 38 foot class C and even though the sites aren't angled, it was pretty easy to back in. There are mature trees on about every site, The camp store is well stocked (even with beer). The wifi was strong enough for us to stream a movie over Netflix with no buffering. The International Museum of the Horse and the KY Horse Park are just a short 15 minute walk from the campground. Zero road noise. The only drawback is that there is no sewer hook up. However, they do have two dump stations on the way out.

Wow…..I was really looking forward to staying here. I was so disappointed when we got there, though. The sites are fairly small and VERY crammed together. Their site says they can accommodate big rigs, and we have been doing this for a long time now, but it just couldn’t be done. Our 44’ Momentum was not wedging in their site. There are posts and trees as obstacles, and for the very first time, we abandoned the effort and went to a Cabelas. Thank God for Cabelas!

Probably fine for up to 30’, but if you have a big rig, skip it. Very disappointing.

The Ky Horsepark was one of the nicest campgrounds in Kentucky with amenities like none of the others. But over the last 2 years they have concentrated on keeping campers out of the Horsepark itself. They have also placed fencing in places that don't necessarily need to be there limiting on foot activity in the campground. Side x Sides tear up parts of the primitive area ( last time visited), although they plainly state they are not allowed. They should mark off an area just for side by side activity if going to allow in campground and park.

The campsites are muddy and need some work done. 3 to 4 inches of rain stands in some sites due to lack of maintenance. They just throw straw down and go on. They need to put gravel in the areas adjacent to the pads so you don't tread mud into your rig. Even outdoor rugs are messy if used in those sites. They need to sow some grass in some areas. They could add a small dog park or place doggy bag stations, one in each loop midway for campers with pets.

It is slowly not the nice place to camp that it once became in the early years around 2014 and later. Manager, although same for few years does not take an interest in making it clean, neat and nice as in earlier years. Also, their have been times when the host in semi private won't let others hook to the multiple water and electric hookups they are stationed at, limiting availability to at least 2 more camping parties.

They worry more about stopping good under age golf cart drivers than watching property destruction by other vehicles. They also do make a difference in the young horse patrons under age golf cart drivers. They drive freely, but camping patrons under age drivers do not.

Bike trails to the Kentucky Horse Park as well as fishing lakes, tennis courts, basketball, swimming pool, and playgrounds. Plenty of room between sites but would be tight and slender parking pavement for the big rigs. Clean showers. Our only complaint is the lack of paths to and from the showers. When camped on the outer loops the campground expects you to drive or ride something instead of providing the typical cut-through to the restrooms. Busy weekends.

We were here for the last week of the winter season and first few days of the regular season. This is a very popular campground and was full on the weekends. Check in is at the campstore in the middle of the campground. We had to wait half an hour or so while they inspected the sites. We chose A23 because it said it backed to polo fields which I thought would be interesting, but instead it backed to some abandoned tractor trailers and no view of the fields. Sites closer to campground road in loop A and D did have views of the eventing fields and stadium.

There is a pool, tennis courts, basketball court, two playgrounds, but the draw for us was being next to the horse park. Staying at the campground allowed us to purchase a 2 day ticket to the horse park during the winter season for $9, including parking. Since it was close to opening day, we got to see the shows practice and an event in the stadium. It is walking/biking distance to the park if the weather is nice.

The campsites leave a LOT to be desired. They are extremely narrow and short, although they are described as 45 feet long and 15 feet wide. Most campers wheels are on the edges of the asphalt and many are not able to fit their tow vehicle on the pad with the camper. Many of the sites are VERY unlevel front to back and side to side. There are cars, trucks, golf carts, etc. parked everywhere between the sites and it makes it feel very crowded and turns the grass between sites into a giant mud pit especially with all the rain we had.

The campground has been changing the water to be able to leave it on in the winter so had laid straw all around the campsites including right up against the fire pits. If it weren't for the rain, this could have been hazardous as the campers next to us kept throwing the straw into their fire pit to get a big blaze and it was igniting the straw surrounding the fire pit since the fire pits are open on the bottom and the straw was laid close to it.

The inspection of the campsites before check-in seemed pointless, because the site next to us checked out and their campfire was still smoking and smoldering and full of cans and bottles, etc. that were not dealt with by the campground staff checking the sites.

Verizon was pretty useless in our site when the park was full, even with a booster, although worked great in the middle of the night and in the middle of the week when it was emptied out. There didn't appear to be enough bandwidth for the volume of use, although we had enough bars. There is a tower behind the D loop, so we got a better signal walking over there. Also, campground wi-fi was weak in our location and better on the opposite side of the campground and closer to the campstore.

We carefully selected our campsite from the limited number of campsites open (loop D sites) in December. As noted by numerous previous reviewers, not all campsites here are level or reasonably able to be leveled in for bigger rigs (I'm looking at you, even-numbered sites 221-228). We were pleased with site 215 (207-217 all appeared reasonably level).

Our site offered 30A/50A, water, and sewer - although the water was shut off during our stay. During the winter, water is shut-off to all available campsites here. There are fill stations at the large, easily accessible dump stations. The bathhouse is also impeccably clean and features hot, well-pressured showers. There is a laundry room with a few washers and dryers at a reasonable price.

The sites are narrow asphalt pads surrounded by grass.

During the winter season, this campground is quiet. We were not lucky enough to be in town during any major horse events taking place at the Horse Park next door, so only about half of the campsites were full on the weekend. We were treated to window views of the drive-through lights show, with lighting fixtures set throughout the campground creating a really nice holiday atmosphere from 5 pm - 10 pm every evening. Of course, this did also create traffic if you wished to re-enter the park between those hours on busy light show evenings (Friday and Saturday), but we didn't mind. We just appreciated the free light show and planned to move slowly into the park.

The park offers a first-come, first-served field with electric outlets for camping in rigs or tents of all sizes. This is a grassy area, however, and might get soft with rain. During our stay, there were a few large rigs in the field that looked to be staying for a while. I would call ahead to access the accessibility and availability of this area before arriving - especially on Horse Event weekends.

The campground featured great running, walking, and biking access. The Legacy Trail is paved and runs from the campground entrance into the city, or out around the Horse Park. The Horse Park itself offers a running/walking trail that is well signed and features 3.1 miles of path along the Cross County course, barns, and pastured fields of horses.

Verizon data service was on point here - plenty functional to engage in video conferencing.