As a final stop before going home, Tom and I headed to Big Bone Lick State Park in Kentucky.  This was the final campout of the season arranged by Sandy Shaw and the first that any of us were doing without her.  We arranged with Eric Shaw, and Steve and Amy Winstead, to join them for a day of hiking and enjoying campground life.

Big Bone Lick State Park is located about an hour southwest of Cincinnati and is in the beautiful rolling hills of Kentucky.  It was a lovely drive in to the state park, although some of the twists and turns were a little tight for an RV.  But we just had the Prius, so it was an easy drive for us.  When we got to the park, we went straight to the campground and located the Shaw/Winstead sites.  The campground is linear and long, and their spots were at the very end.

The name of the park comes from the Pleistocene megafauna fossils found there.  Mammoths were drawn to this location by a salt lick deposited around the sulfur springs.  Other animals, including forms of bison, mastodon, musk ox, ground sloths, stag moose, and saber-toothed cats, also grazed the vegetation and salty earth around the springs.  The salt springs also made it a good place for humans to hunt these animals.  The majority of fossils found in the area have been dated to the Wisconsin Glacial Period (c. 115,000 – c. 11,700 years ago).

The bones of these big animals have made Big Bone Lick alluring to archaeologists.  The Visitors Center has a museum that houses many of the big bones, including a mammoth skeleton.  There is a life-sized diorama of hunters with the animals at the salt like just outside the Visitors Center.  I found out later that Big Bone Lick State Park is part of the Lewis and Clark National Historic Trail, so it was another NPS site!

During our visit with Eric and the Winsteads, we enjoyed sitting around the campfire (although it was too hot for a fire until after dark).  Then we took a hike from the campground to the Visitors Center.  The hike was about a mile, although we had a little detour at the beginning that made it more adventurous.  We took the hike while Emma, Steve and Amy’s two-year-old, had her nap.  Grandpa Eric stayed at the campsite in case she woke up.

Big Bone Lick State Park has a small bison herd, a miniature golf course, a swimming pool in season, and several miles of hiking trails.  After enjoying the museum and doing a little shopping at the Visitors Center, we walked on down to the salt lick.  Although there were signs, it was also easy to tell where the spring was because of the sulphur smell.

When Emma woke up, I played with with her for a while.  Steve and Amy had brought Emma’s tiny pink ATV and she and I went around and around the cul-de-sac by the campsites.  Her ATV had a “radio” and every time “If You’re Happy and You Know It” came on, we had to stop the ATV in order to stomp our feet.  It is easy to get enough exercise when you are playing with a two-year-old and Emma is a delight.

Tom and I had a wonderful, quick trip and enjoyed seeing new things and a few old things as well.  It was good to end by visiting with people we love.