When Alan Jackson sang the country hit Tall Tall Trees, he just might have been singing about Kentucky.
From mountains to massive lakes, flatlands in the west to the rolling bluegrass of the heartland, to the hills and forests in the southeast, there’s something cool to be discovered in every nook and hollow.
Kentucky offers 17 resort parks – more than any other state. They were developed to bring comfort, convenience, and outdoor recreational opportunity to a landscape rich with unspoiled nature. Each one features a full-service lodge and dining room, expansive outdoor recreation region and other attractions, earning Kentucky the growing reputation of having the nation’s finest state park system.
Kingdom Come State Park
Situated near the Kentucky-Virginia border on the crest of Pine Mountain at an elevation of 823 meters, Kingdom Come is Kentucky’s highest state park. It is a vast expanse of unspoiled wilderness, home to bat-caves and roosts, sandstone bridges, and extraordinary formations including Raven Rock – an 88-meter rock exposure that juts up from the earth at a 45-degree angle.
Kingdom Come was described by a local park ranger as being a mesophytic forest, one of the most biologically diverse eco-regions in the world. Also known as the ‘Heinz 57’ of forests, it is home to the likes of deer, bobcats, coyotes, warblers, woodpeckers, and wild turkeys, and a vast mix of hardwood and softwood including hickory, birch, walnut, elm, maple, pine, and even tulip trees.
Did I mention the trees were tall? In fact, the only things taller in Kentucky are the tales.
There’s a local legend that tells how Kingdom Come got its name. Seems a man named King came to the region, settled on the mountain, and bought up 22,000 acres of land. Later, when new settlers arrived, they were told not to bother looking for land because “King done come here” already…
In actuality, the park’s name was taken from the famous Civil War novel by John Fox Jr. called The Little Shepherd of Kingdom Come, the first Kentucky book to sell one million copies.
There are 14 hiking trails of varying lengths and skill level that crisscross the rugged mountain terrain. Little Shepherd Trail is a narrow road that winds 61 kilometers along the top of Pine Mountain south of Whitesburg. This roundabout route is a favourite for bikers and off-road vehicles, offering several scenic rock outcroppings and four stunning overlooks. Black Mountain Gazebo offers a spectacular view of Black Mountain, Kentucky’s highest peak at 1,263 meters, and the town of Cumberland below.
With hiking increasing in popularity in Kentucky, Kingdom Come’s hiking trails are being incorporated into the planned Pine Mountain Trail, which will eventually stretch 177 kilometers to Cumberland Gap National Historical Park on the Tennessee border.
Lilley Cornett Woods
John Denver once wrote a song about West Virginia, another of Kentucky’s bordering states. When he sang that “life is old there older than the trees” he may also have been referring to Kentucky – where the trees are as old as they are tall.
Within Kingdom Come State Park lies the Lilley Cornett Woods, one of the largest protected tracts of old-growth forest in Kentucky, and likely the only surviving tract in the Cumberland Mountains. A national natural landmark and state wildlife refuge, Lilley Cornett Woods covers 554 acres, with 252 acres of that being old-growth forest.
Shortly after World War I, a man named Lilley Cornett purchased the first of five tracts of land that today comprise the natural area that bears his name. He had many offers over the years to sell the old-growth forest for timber, but refused.
A walk though this tranquil retreat of towering trees takes you back in time, allowing you to see and touch the same growth that Daniel Boone and other early American explorers would have seen. With more than 60 species including white oak, chestnut, red maple and hickory, some of the trees are as old as 600 years, sporting a height and girth greater than anything I’ve witnessed. If these trees could talk, I’ll bet they would have the tallest tales around.
These woods also offer more than 530 species of flowering plants, including rare flora like red azalea, ginseng, spotted mandarin and sweet pinesap. Large predatory birds like the red-shouldered hawk and barred owl call Lilley Cornett home, as do a variety of reptiles and amphibians, and large mammals like white-tailed deer, bobcats, and fox.
