Nolin Lake State Park - hidden Kentucky gem

[pulsar]

Last August, jspringator mentioned Nolin Lake State Park in the thread Kentucky where would you stop and why

Since we are traveling around in Virginia, Kentucky, Indiana and Tennessee this summer, we decided to check it out.

This is a gem of a campground, with only 32 RV sites, which are wide, grassy, and many are shaded, along with 27 primitive sites, which are in a separate area. The RV sites have water and electric (50 amps) - $25 per night. There is a good dump station. The campground is located in Mammoth Cave, KY and Mammoth Cave is a short drive away.



As you can see, our site (21) backed up to the water, a fact not missed by our golden retrievers.

One negative: There is a 20 or so mile drive in on 2 lane roads with little to no shoulders.

We will be going back, tentatively, this October.

On edit: I should have included the following:
No wifi.
Verizon extended LTE (which means another provider has a tower near by - Verizon has an agreement with them so no roaming charges.)
According to the host, no over-the-air TV. We didn't verify that.

Tom

[pulsar]

texasAUtiger wrote:
We were there less than a week ago as we worked our way back to TX from Maine.

It is a nice state park. Off the beaten path and we had no cell service or wi-fi, but the sites are wonderful. Would be extra nice if you have a boat.

What cellular provider do you use? I ask only for completeness. As I added to my first post, we had Verizon extended LTE. We used our laptops, tethered to our phones, while we were there. Since it was "extended LTE", it was on a non-Verizon tower, so there is another provider that works there.

Tom

[texasAUtiger]

We were there less than a week ago as we worked our way back to TX from Maine.

It is a nice state park. Off the beaten path and we had no cell service or wi-fi, but the sites are wonderful. Would be extra nice if you have a boat.

[travelnutz]

pulsar,

I don't remember the PPA cost at Diamond Caverns offhand but it is what the book and the PPA website states. Perhaps 50 amp might be an additional $2 or maybe some other additional charges for extra persons beyond the normal amount etc.

We have had PPA for as long as it's been offered and it pays for itself with just a couple nights stay each year and saves big time the whole rest of the year. We re-up for 3 years at a time for around ~$120 for the 3 years. I think it's about $50 for one year if only joining for the one year. However, my wife pays the bill so I actually never pay any attention to the exact cost. She tell me if the cost had increase a lot and has not said a word yet.

We use it a lot when traveling as paying $30 to $40 for an overnight stop of 8-10 hours is ridiculous in our thinking. Close to about 2000 CG's in the PPA system unless something has changed. New CG's will be added and some CG's will drop out each year but the trend has been an increasing number in the system for years.

So much better than in a Walmart parking lot or the like in our view and helps keep many CG's viable and open especially in their slower times and us RV'ers need all the CG's and more added yet as they just keep on selling hundreds of thousands of new RV's each year and presently, not adding enough new CG's to keep up with the increasing number of RV's in use. We are not cheap but also not dumb enough to pay $4/hr for just sleeping on a CG site as we very seldom full hookup and only 30 amp electric used and about any RV has a water tank and holding tanks and guess why they do? We also have a pure Siberian Husky dog who doesn't need a paved parking lot either!

We very seldom run our A/C because we don't like the noise or cold air blowing on us. Have no desire to go to places where it's real hot or hot and humid. Only north in summer and usually south for about 2 to 2-1/2 months in deep winter (about 2nd week in January till about the 3rd week of March and back home) as wife is disabled and has limited mobility and had 19 operations and doesn't want more. She also doesn't need to slip and fall on a slippery spot either. Most PPA CG sites are in the $10 to $20 range as it's 50% off the normal base price. All is explained on their website.

[pulsar]

travelnutz,

I don't disagree with you about Nolin Lake not being an overnight spot. We would not want to drive 20 miles of secondary roads for an overnight stay. As far as a couple of days, it seems that many (some with boats), do come in just for the weekend. Our stay was four nights, mainly to give the dogs some water recreation. We did tour Mammoth Cave, also.

As I stated earlier, this trip is a "state park" trip and we are not staying in private campgrounds (except last night out.) There are other public campgrounds in the area. For example, Moutardier and Dog Creek COE campgrounds. We choose Nolin Lake State Park because of jspringator's recommendation and its small size - 32 rv sites. As you can see in the pictured posted earlier, the campsites are widely spaced.

If you are a Passport America member or one of the other home CG Resort Members, Diamond Caverns CG is close to half the price of Nolin or most other local places yet.

Are you saying that Passport America members only pay $13 per night at Diamond Caverns? I would have thought it was closer to $21. (We paid $25 per night at Nolin Lake.)

By the way, the three public parks mentioned in this post are all rated higher in RVParkReviews than is Diamond Cave.

Colin Lake State Park - avg rating : 9 (26 review)
Dog Creek COE - avg rating: 8.5 (16 reviews)
Moutardier COE - avg rating: 8.4 (19 reviews)
Diamond Cave - act rating: 7.3 (59 reviews)

That extra 15 to 20 miles of pulling or driving an RV is far from cheap as it's times 2 as you eventually leave the place also so it negates all or most of the cost savings one can cite. The extra Fuel required, tire wear, mechanical rig wear. and then there's the additional driving time times 2 also are real factors.

When we are doing this type of tour, it not the cost of the campground, or the cost of driving the RV that determines whee we want to stay. It is location, location, location.

Tom

[travelnutz]

pulsar,

Not knocking Nolin at all as it's a nice CG but is a destination for an many day stay rather than an overnight or couple day stay.

If you are a Passport America member or one of the other home CG Resort Members, Diamond Caverns CG is close to half the price of Nolin or most other local places yet. We don't let ourselves be controlled by a few bucks difference but rather the overall CG amenities we want to have or use and the convenience to get to the CG. That extra 15 to 20 miles of pulling or driving an RV is far from cheap as it's times 2 as you eventually leave the place also so it negates all or most of the cost savings one can cite. The extra Fuel required, tire wear, mechanical rig wear. and then there's the additional driving time times 2 also are real factors.

We've used DC CG for years now. Both places offer a CG site for you to rent and park on overnight or for a short stay etc and you are only staying there for that short time, not buying the place.

That said, we do like state parks in most of the states when they are an easy sensible location near to our travel route location. Some state's state parks are few and far between and some really suck!

RV'ers have choices!

[pulsar]

Diamond Caverns Campground is more accessible from the interstate and has more amenities; it's a resort. It also costs more and one is closer to one's neighbors.

This is a state park - corp of engineers trip for us and so Diamond Caverns wasn't considered. New state parks for us this summer include:
Grindstone State Park - Troutdale, VA.
Brown County State Park - Nashville, IN
Colin Lake State Park.

There have been others, such as Hillman Ferry and Lexington State Horse Park, that are not new to us.

Tom

[coolmom42]

Good to know! That's not too far from me.

[travelnutz]

Yes, Nolin SP CG is very nice and we like Diamond Caverns CG also just west of Park City KY on KY-255 as it's close to I-65 which we take a lot going N or S. Not on the water but that doesn't matter to us as we live on Lake Michigan shoreline and there's lots of navigable fresh water all around us 360 degrees and yet we don't live on an island.