Daniel Boone Trip
A trip to help you Escape and explore by scouting and exploring some of the Daniel Boone National Forest.
A trip to scout out and explore some of the Daniel Boone National Forest.
Follow our adventures on Instagram or Facebook for more trip pictures.
Hello, ready for an adventure? I hope this blog post will help you in getting out there to Escape and explore. I want to help you find places to visit and equipment to use and just wet your appetite for adventure. You don’t have to have a big expensive 4×4 monster truck to enjoy the back country just a little planning and the desire to get away from the crowds. Come along with us for this two night trip into the land of Daniel Boone.
We recently discovered Daniel Boone’s last home in Kentucky on a short day trip. It’s located on US68 between Maysville and Paris near Carlisle. It is a small log cabin on private property but open to the public. It is being very well cared for. If you happen to be from the east side of Cincinnati the trip down US68 is a great way to get to Lexington. Absolutely a beautiful drive and fast from Brown County.
We decided to continue with the Daniel Boone theme and visit the National Forest that bears his name.
This trip had a two fold purpose. First we wanted to visit the family cemetery where my wife’s mother, grandmother and great grandmother are buried. The cemetery is near Somerset Kentucky so we decided to take the time to explore and scout out some of the National Forest near there. Hopefully this scouting trip will help you find your own adventure there.
A cemetery trip may not sound like an exciting adventure but they can be very inspiring. I think we need to remember our ancestors and the trials they went through to build this great land. And as a bonus, someone way back in the 1896 picked an absolutely beautiful spot as the last resting place for the family.
Planning a trip is half the fun. We ordered a DeLorme Atlas and Gazetteer map book of Kentucky. As soon as I got the map I went to gravelmap.com and started highlighting gravel roads in the areas we would be visiting. This has become my go-to site for trip planning. Lots of people have no idea where to find gravel roads to explore. This site solves that problem. Gravelmap.com is made for bicyclist so make sure the roads are roads not trails.
I also searched the web for free/dispersed camping sites. There are many more free places to camp than most of us know of, even on this side of the Mississippi. National forest land often has free campsites or allows dispersed camping. Dispersed camping is camping in the wild. Or not in a camp ground. Different types of federal land handle this different so some research is needed. Even within the same national forest certain areas may have different rules. So do your research well. Visit the websites for which ever government entity controls the land. In this case the US Department of Agriculture. At www.fs.usda.gov/dbnf/. Remember forest land is managed for its resources it is not a park just for entertainment. Do your due diligence and make sure you know the rules for where you are going.
On this trip we are still breaking in the Oztent. Trying out some jerry cans and spouts for water. Trying out some new inflatable sleeping pads. And trying a new idea I ran into just before the trip, using a pump up pressure sprayer for “running” water. I’ll start making some reviews of our equipment for you. We have some over the top amazing gear to show you.
I took off work on Monday and didn’t have to be back till work starts at 3pm on Tuesday. So we decided to take all day Saturday to get ready. A whole day to do last minute checks. Glad I had a checklist to remind me to do a quick vehicle check. I would have skipped it because the Escape would be due for maintenance when we got back anyway. Seems something made a home in the filter housing and under the engine cover. So the maintenance got done early.
We got all packed up and made it to the cemetery Sunday afternoon. It was hot! And bugs were crazy. We spent some time mapping the cemetery and photographing all the headstones to add to our ancestry files. We met one of my wife’s distant relatives who was visiting his wife’s resting place and had a great chat with him about the family.
After this the real adventure part of the trip began. We continued on down Bolthouse Ridge Road from the cemetery. We went through some of the Rockcastle River Wildlife Management Area. This is over 2900 acres that Kentucky manages primarily as a hunting area. Then we passed into part of the Daniel Boone National Forest (DBNF). We gave up on following Bolthouse Ridge Road as it became too washed out and steep. We did find some great views of the Rockcastle River valley.
After retracing our trail we continued south into the DBNF toward the Cumberland River. We found one trail that turned into a washed out dirt two track without finding anything great. Drove right past another trail that ended up being two tracks almost in someones yard. And finally got into some nice gravel roads leading us to the Little Lick Campground. A horseman’s camp. And free. There was only one other site in use out of about 8 sites. We had a good but hot night. The pump sprayer was great for spraying off to clean and cool ourselves. And our battery powered fan was great. Remember these free sites are usually off grid. No power. No water. Possible not even pit toilets. We’ll show you our bathroom someday!
Monday we packed up and went exploring some of the gravel roads near the campground. This was all in the Stearns Ranger District. We found a small rock arch on one road (122a) only a short walk from the loop at the end of the road. And on another road (272) some great looking spots for dispersed camping.
We decided to start heading north to our next camping area a little earlier than first planned and I’m glad we did. The GPS lead us to one “road” that looked barely big enough for a quad. Part of the drive was on Kentucky Route 89. (KY89) This was a beautiful little road. If you are into campers don’t try to take too big a camper up that road from London toward McKee. Its pretty narrow and had one wood paved bridge with a low weight limit. Finally as we were almost to the Turkey Foot Campground near McKee Kentucky we hit a closed forest road. After a big loop around to the other side we finally arrived.
Turkey Foot Campground was a beautiful place. It sits along a creek that has spots to wade, swim and enjoy the cool water. The camp sites are up the hill a little and the area right at the creek is for day use. Which is fine because that creek does flood. It would be possible to get stuck in the campground when the road is flooded. This campground is a busy little place. Cars just drive through and day use people come and go. But that night only one other site was in use.
The next morning we packed up and headed north for home. We set the navigation to avoid highways and drove toward Maysville, KY. We passed through some valleys with gorgeous views. I think we were on 89 again. We noted that driving this road was as scenic as the gravel roads we usually seek out.
Daniel Boone National Forest was everything we had hoped for. Quiet camping, places to dispersed camp and great scenery. There were roads that any car could drive as well as some we didn’t try in the Escape. We will definitely be visiting again.
I hope this helps you find your own adventure.
Escape and explore.