We left Alum Creek State Park Campground in Delaware, Ohio on Labor Day around 10:30 am (after a 45-minute wait at the campground’s dump station) for a 3 1/2 hour drive to Blue Licks Battlefield State Resort Park in Carlisle, Kentucky. Cindy is usually careful to make sure we don’t travel on a holiday because of how busy it can be at the campground’s dump station and the increased traffic on the roads as people hurry back home after their long weekend. But this one slipped by her so we knew we’d have a long wait at the dump station.
And we could have waited until arriving at Blue Licks to dump, but all that extra water weight reduces our gas mileage. So we just built in the extra time at the dump station that morning to our driving plan so we’d still arrive on time for check-in at this campground in The Bluegrass State.
During the drive we had a nice “catch-up” call with AnnMarie getting us up to date on herself and the kids. Those calls are always wonderful and we try to do them at least once a month.
Blue Licks Battlefield State Resort Park
Blue Licks Battlefield State Resort Park is located on Highway 68 outside of Carlisle, Kentucky and is 148 acres in size. The park includes the Blue Licks Salt Springs, which have attracted prehistoric animals, Native Americans, and early pioneers like Daniel Boone.
Blue Licks is also home to the endangered Short’s goldenrod, which is protected in a 15-acre area of preserve at the park. Short’s goldenrod is historically linked to the Buffalo Trace hiking trail that is also within Blue Licks Battlefield State Resort Park. Cindy and I hiked that trail during this stay, as you can see in the photo album.
But, as you might guess from the name, Blue Licks Battlefield State Resort Park is more widely known as a battlefield site. More specifically, it is the site of the last Revolutionary War battle in Kentucky. On August 19, 1782, Kentuckians battled Indian and British soldiers near the Licking River and the outnumbered Kentuckians suffered great losses in defeat, including one of Daniel Boone’s sons.
In 1918, some 136 years later, an estimated 10,000 people gathered at the site for the dedication of Blue Licks Battlefield State Park and the memorial erected to honor the fallen soldiers with the words of Daniel Boone, “Enough of honor cannot be paid” inscribed on the monument.
The park is an interesting blend of history and the beauty of nature. There are five hiking trails, but we only went on three of them; Buffalo Trace, River Lick, and Savannah Loop. Not far from the 51-site campground is the 32-room Worthington Lodge, as well as the Pioneer Museum.
Our site was an unlevel asphalt pad that was breaking apart at the edges. We had a 50-amp electrical and water hookups, but the power pedestal and water faucet were on the opposite side of the trailer from where they normally are at most campgrounds. Fortunately, we knew this because Cindy had looked over several reviews of the place, so we had our extensions ready to connect.
Short, Loose Wire or ?
After we got set up we took Bella for a walk around the campground loop (pets are NOT allowed on the hiking trails because of the historical significance of them) and scoped out which trails we wanted to hike on during our stay.
The mysterious light/outlet outage in the slide-out area occurred again, making it plain to this non-electrician that we have a short, loose ground wire, or other problem. I crawled underneath the trailer and examined all the wiring that I could access and see, but a lot of it is above the bottom exterior seal of the trailer. What I could see and touch was fine and moving what I could touch had no effect on the lights coming back on. I will probably have to get a wiring diagram of this model and see what I can track down, but I will try an inspection of what I can get to inside the trailer first.
Day of Hiking
Tuesday, after walking Bella around the loop we brought her back to Nomad, turned on the Air-conditioner (yeah its getting warmer as we head farther south, imagine that) and left to go hike the Buffalo Trace Trail. This was a short trail but full of some beautiful flora including the rare Short’s goldenrod.
According to Wikipedia: “Short’s goldenrod, is a species of goldenrod in the family Asteraceae. The only known populations of Short’s goldenrod occur around the Blue Licks Battlefield State Park area of Kentucky and Harrison-Crawford State Forest in Indiana. It was listed on the Federal Register of Endangered Species on September 5, 1985, and was given a global rank of G1 on February 29, 2000.”
If you’re like me and have no idea what a G1 rank means, I looked it up for us: Critically Imperiled– At very high risk of extinction or elimination due to very restricted range, very few populations or occurrences, very steep declines, very severe threats, or other factors.
Then we hiked the longer River Lick trail and part of the Savannah Loop trail. Both of these were moderately difficult trails that seemed hard to these two old geezers. Lots of inclines, declines, and loose rocks through thick stands of woods. We loved it and were ready for a hearty lunch by the time we returned to Bella and Nomad.
We are still watching Star Trek: The Next Generation on DVD. That night we were on the sixth season and the majority of the stories were all good, fun-to-watch episodes. The writers and actors really seemed to have hit their stride during this period.
History and Lunch
Wednesday morning we visited the Blue Licks Battlefield site, the burial site of the soldiers who perished in that fight, and the monument that was erected to honor those who had fallen. These were very somber areas and we were respectful and solemn as we viewed them.
Then we visited the Pioneer Museum, which was closed on Monday and Tuesday of each week, so this was our first opportunity to see it.
I wish I could show you photos from the very awesome displays that museum had of pioneer life in the area and the Blue Licks battle, but they had a rule of no photography. It was extremely interesting and informative, but it was sad that we could not take photos to share.
At lunch we drove over to the Worthington Lodge and their Hidden Waters Restaurant for lunch. Cindy was delighted to see they had Kentucky Hot Brown on the menu, but we specifically asked them if it was available in its entirety. That’s because when we were in Kentucky 11 months ago at Mammoth Caves and she ordered it, it was missing her favorite ingredient.
After lunch we drove to a nearby gas station and filled up Voyager for our trip the next day to our next campground.
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