Levi Jackson Wilderness State Park - Kentucky (2017)

We found ourselves camping at Levi Jackson Wilderness State Park for the third time in the past three years. It seems that this park is in a very convenient location along the routes we tend to frequently travel with Rosie, our 25 foot Airstream trailer.

Levi Jackson State Park

Our view of this park remains consistent over our multiple visits. It appears to be a local favorite that attracts many families from the region.

The park has a recreation center that helps keep the kids busy. There are hiking trails, a swimming pool, a tree-top zip line experience and a grist mill in this park. In addition, the mini golf course and the basketball court always seem to be popular places for families to congregate.

Rosie parked at Levi Jackson

Here is some specific information about this park:

• There appears to be three main camping loops in this park. We camped in the first loop, which is nearer to a stream.
• Our site had 20, 30 and 50 amp electrical service.
• Our site had a water connection with good pressure.
• Our site did not have a sewer connection. There are some sites in this park with sewer connections.
• We found only one dump station in the park. It is at the end of the second loop and not easy to access.
• The park has several bathhouses. The restroom and showers nearest Rosie were clean and well-maintained.
• A negative about the bathhouse is that the showers are controlled by a push button. That means you have no control over water temperature and you only get 12 to 15 seconds per push. This is very inconvenient!
• The park offered WiFi for a fee. When we logged in, the service said we were eligible for two weeks of free access. We are unsure if this was a fluke or something everyone always sees in this park.
• AT&T provided a marginal 4G voice and data signal over the park.
• As before, we could not see any television signals while using Rosie's TV antenna.
• This was a pet-friendly park.

One of the things we noticed every time we camped in this park is the number of children playing and riding their bikes. This appears to be a very family-friendly park and one that attracts young families. That is a positive thing in our opinion.

We ate at the original KFC while camping in Levi Jackson

It still tastes the same!

Col. Sanders posing (sort of) for a picture

We visited Cumberland Falls while camping at Levi Jackson

The falls

Riding a train to an old mining village

On the train

Suzy enjoys her train ride

Levi Jackson Wilderness State Park - Kentucky (2016)

We were heading south and needed a park for a night or two. There were some Army Corp of Engineer parks that looked good on the AllStays app, but it was a weekend and those parks were small. The probability of us getting a campsite in those parks was slim.

We found a Kentucky State Park while using our AllStays app that had more than 130 sites and called for a reservation. We were glad we called because we booked one of the last few remaining sites. Whew! We were glad we had somewhere to park Rosie, our 25 foot Airstream trailer.

Welcome to Kentucky

The park's name sounded familiar and a quick check of our Cozy Rosie blog confirmed that we camped in the Levi Jackson State Park in 2015. I guess this park is conveniently located for our trips through Kentucky.

What we wrote about in 2015 seemed valid when we arrived for this visit. We noticed that this is a very family-oriented park. The streets were full of children riding their bikes and skateboards. Another group of kids were on the basketball court shooting hoops. It appeared to us that the park was full of regional campers who frequently spent their weekends there.

There were an amazing number of activities scheduled at this park for all age groups. Park workers had multiple craft times and sporting events planned for the children.

The park was full over the weekend. We enjoyed watching people having fun at the Tree-Top Adventure in the park. In fact, we ended up watching park workers rescue an overweight person who ended up stuck on a zip line between two trees.

Tree-Top Adventure

Someone enjoying the Tree-Top Adventure

There is a "wilderness life" museum in the park. There is an additional charge to tour it. We skipped the museum because of the "no photographs anywhere on the museum's grounds" rule and not because of the cost to get in.

Another popular spot in the park was the gristmill. While it wasn't open, the exterior was fun to photograph.

The Grist Mill

Selfie by the Grist Mill

We asked while checking in if anything special was going on that weekend. The office staff said a car show and fish fry was scheduled near the swimming pool on Saturday. It was fun seeing the classic cars and we enjoyed the fish fry.

The car show

The car show

The fish fry was very good

A couple things we noticed about the campground were the lights and smoke. I don't think we have ever been in a park with more streetlights on at night. The park was very lit up at night, to the point that you wanted to add additional window shades to block some of the light.

Smoke was another issue. It seemed as if a rookie campfire builders' convention was going on because everyone had a fire that produced more smoke than flame. Anyone suffering from a respiratory ailment would have suffered while camping over the weekend.

You can see the smoke while looking out Rosie's window

Things changed Sunday afternoon when a large number of families pulled out, probably to get ready for the coming work week. The park wasn't as crowded and the number of children playing in the park was much less than over the weekend. Strangely, the level of smoky fires around us continued at an annoying level.

Here are some specifics about this park:

• Our site had 20, 30 and 50 amp electrical service.
• Our site had water and sewer connections.
• We could pick up a PBS and an Independent station that mostly aired infomercials using Rosie's TV antenna.
• AT&T placed only one-to-two bars of service over the park. It was very difficult to maintain data service while camping here.
• There was Wi-Fi service in the park available for a premium fee.
• This was a pet-friendly park.
• There were several restrooms and showers in this park. The one we tried to check on was locked.

Levi Jackson Wilderness State Park - Kentucky

One of our family discussion points has centered around "spontaneity" while on the road. Let's simply say that one of us wants reservations for every night we plan to be on the road and the other is OK with heading in a compass direction and finding something along the way. While this discussion continues, our compromise is that we always have a full list of reservations before we hitch up Rosie, our 25 foot Airstream trailer, for a new "planned" adventure.

We were surprised when the service work at the Airstream factory was completed on the second morning. We planned on being there for three days. That meant we were about to test the theory that we could find somewhere to stay while heading down the road. It also meant that one of us was going to be very nervous on this leg of the trip.

To make things more interesting, we wanted to be south of Lexington and far enough from Knoxville that we would miss rush-hour traffic the next morning. How hard could it be to find the perfect spot while traveling through the hills of Kentucky?

The All-Stays app and the RV Parks Reviews Web site helped narrow down our choices to two. We selected the park closest to the Interstate highway, making Levi Jackson Wilderness State Park our default choice for a one night stay. The park has more than 130 campsites, so we figured we had a good chance of squeezing in for the night.

Rosie at Levi Jackson Wilderness State Park

A few of the negative comments left online in reviews for the park said it was full of kids. We were amazed at the number of children playing in the campground, but we saw that was a positive sign.
Clearly, many families wanted to be in this park. In fact, it seemed to us that this park had many things you expected to see at a good summer camp for kids.

For example, we noticed that you could check out basketballs at the recreation center and many kids took advantage of that service. The rec center also offered arts and crafts classes for campers, both big and small. In the park were several playgrounds, a great swimming pool with children's splash pools and a miniature golf course. All this adds up to Levi Jackson being a wonderful park for families with children. The reviewers complaining about kids being in the park are missing the point of family camping and should be sticking to 55+ campgrounds. We found the family atmosphere at this park to be positive.

 

Levi Jackson State Park

One of the trails

The miniature golf course at Levi Jackson State Park

Looking back at the first camping loop in Levi Jackson State Park

There were several nice hiking/bicycle trails and we loved the shade trees in the park. There was a geo-cache in the park, but we were reluctant to leave the trail and hike through the brush to find it because we saw a few plants that could have been poison ivy.

Here are some specifics about the park:

• There are three camping loops in the park, each with its own attributes. The first loop featured larger campsites and some were along a creek. This loop has water and electric connections for your camper. We think the first loop had more shade than the others. The center loop added sewer connections to the package. It appeared to us that these sites were closer together. The last loop had water and electric connections and those sites were much closer together.
  
• Our site had 20, 30 and 50 amp power.
• There is one dump station in the park.
• There are multiple pricing tiers based on your loop and the day of the week. Holidays and weekends are pricier than the middle of the week. There are several discounts available. We were able to cash in on the "veterans" discount.
• Our "TV Towers USA" iPhone app said one TV signal covered the park. We were unable to pick it up. Don't expect to watch over-the-air TV while camping in Levi Jackson State Park.
• AT&T provided the faintest signal for voice and data over this park. If patient, you may be able to load your email.
• The camp store sells Wi-Fi access in this park. I hope this does not become the norm for state parks.
• This is a pet friendly park.
• The bathhouses appear to be well maintained. One negative is that water for the showers is turned on with a push button. Once pressed, the water turns off too soon. We won't go into water temperature issues with the push button system.

The camp store sells the normal items found in these places. If you need firewood, bug spray and hot dogs, you will find the store well stocked.

This is a great little park for families. There are a lot of things for the kids and plenty for the adults. We were very pleasantly surprised by how nice this Kentucky State Park is and how friendly the park staff was to us.