The ground: one forest in four pieces, one peninsula and a great deal of water
Kentucky’s 1,022,623 federal acres go to four agencies. The Forest Service holds 818,751, the National Park Service 95,182, the Department of Defense 92,130 and the Fish and Wildlife Service 16,560. The BLM holds none, and the national BLM route layer has no Kentucky records at all, so nothing on this page is a BLM road. If your habits come from the West, put the surface map away and read a Motor Vehicle Use Map instead.
The Daniel Boone National Forest is one forest in four separate working pieces. The Cumberland Ranger District at Morehead covers 182,694 acres across Rowan, Bath, Menifee, Morgan, Powell, Wolfe, Estill and Lee counties, and holds both Cave Run Lake and the Red River Gorge. The London Ranger District is the largest at 208,044 acres across Laurel, Whitley, Rockcastle, Jackson, Estill, Owsley, Lee and Pulaski, with Laurel River Lake and two Kentucky Wild River sections on it: 16.1 miles of the Cumberland below Summer Shoals and 15.9 miles of the lower Rockcastle. The Stearns Ranger District at Whitley City runs more than 171,000 acres in four southeastern counties with over 120 miles of trail. The Redbird Ranger District, a stand-alone unit worked from an office at Big Creek, covers 145,850 acres across Clay, Leslie, Owsley, Perry, Harlan and Knox.
Land Between the Lakes is a different animal: a Forest Service recreation area of more than 170,000 acres on a peninsula between Kentucky Lake and Lake Barkley, run as one unit since 1963, with 300 miles of natural shoreline and what the agency calls one of the largest contiguous blocks of undeveloped forest in the eastern United States. The Park Service holds Mammoth Cave, whose surveyed passages stretch over 400 miles and make it the world’s longest known cave system; the Kentucky half of Big South Fork, 125,000 acres of Cumberland Plateau around a free-flowing river; and Cumberland Gap, 14,000 acres of wilderness and 85 miles of trail spread over three states.
Two other landlords matter to a trip. The Army Corps of Engineers has 26 Kentucky projects listed on its own Lakes Gateway, from Barkley and Lake Cumberland to Fishtrap, Grayson and Martins Fork, and its reservoirs carry 27 of the 41 federal campgrounds here. Cave Run Lake, 8,270 acres, and Laurel River Lake, 5,600 acres with nearly 200 miles of tree-lined shore, are the odd pair: the Corps operates both dams while the Forest Service administers the water and the shoreline. The state adds 10 state forests totalling 48,829 acres, 17 state resort parks, and wildlife management areas where the rule is narrower than the map looks: mechanized vehicles are allowed only on maintained roads open to public use, and camping is permitted only in designated areas and only on certain areas at that.
Source 1
Rain, sandstone and the weeks the ground is shut
NOAA puts Kentucky’s annual average between about 38 inches of precipitation in the northeast and around 58 in the southeast. The wettest year on record is 2011 at 64 inches and the driest 1930 at 29, and since 2011 the state has run 7.4 inches a year above its long-term average. A typical station sees about two days a year with two inches or more. The state also averaged about 24 tornadoes a year between 1991 and 2019.
Temperature sets a long season rather than a short one. July daily highs run from 82 degrees in the east to 91 in the west, and January highs from 40 in the north to 47 in the south. There is no summit road here that closes for the winter and no pass to wait on. What closes is the dirt, and the closures are written into the operating rules rather than into a calendar of snow.
Turkey Bay states it most plainly: call before you haul, because trails close if the ground is saturated to prevent resource damage. The White Sulphur OHV trail near London runs a season instead, open to off-highway vehicles from May 1 to November 30 and given over to walkers from December 1 to April 30, with most of its surface hardened with gravel against erosion. The Redbird Crest is open year round, and the Daniel Boone warns on its own scenic driving page that many Forest Service roads are narrow and rocky. Slow down and read this year’s Motor Vehicle Use Map, one for each of the four districts.
Fire has dates in Kentucky, and they are law rather than guidance. The spring forest fire hazard season runs February 15 to April 30 and the fall season October 1 to December 15, and during both it is illegal to burn anything within 150 feet of any woodland or brushland between 6 a.m. and 6 p.m. Only natural plant matter may be burned at any time. Counties and fire departments add their own restrictions on top, so check the one you will sleep in.
Source 48
What Kentucky asks of a vehicle
Width and height, more than clearance. The Kentucky Transportation Cabinet measured Nada Tunnel on KY 77 in 2023 and reported it at roughly 900 feet long, 12 feet wide and 13 feet high, a one-way bottleneck on a two-way road. The Forest Service tells drivers of anything larger than 12 feet wide or 12 feet tall to enter the gorge from the KY 715 end instead, or from the north on KY 77, and says large vehicles may not be able to pass through the tunnel at all. The same study found KY 77 and KY 715 have two travel lanes each 8 to 9 feet wide with a foot or less of paved shoulder, and that much of the 18.2-mile corridor is steep grades and sharp curves that call for less than the posted 35 mph.
The limits keep coming in feet. Skyland Road up to the Pinnacle Overlook at Cumberland Gap is closed to vehicles 20 feet or longer. Big South Fork publishes a separate set of directions for anything over 40 feet of truck and trailer, because KY 297 through the river gorge has grades up to 13 percent and sharp hairpins, and KY 742 into Blue Heron is much the same. At Mammoth Cave the Green River Ferry will not take a vehicle and trailer over 12 tons or longer than 16 feet, the park campground caps RVs at 38 feet, Maple Springs at 40, and Houchin Ferry takes no RVs or trailers at all.
Off pavement the measurement is inches. The Redbird Crest Trail is signed by section: sections 1 to 6 for vehicles 64 inches or less in width with engines up to 1,000 cc, sections 7 to 13 for 50 inches or less, sections 14 and 15 for licensed street-legal vehicles only, and sections 16 to 22 for single-track machines. The Sheltowee Trace allows off-highway vehicles under 50 inches only on sections designated for them. Turkey Bay requires a DOT-approved helmet in anything without a fully enclosed cab, plus a working spark arrester and muffler. Big South Fork requires a Forest Service approved spark arrester and a functioning muffler on rail buggies and other off-road vehicles, bans straight pipes, and bans tracked vehicles outright.
Three practical notes. Both the Park Service at Mammoth Cave and at Big South Fork warn in writing that satellite navigation gives wrong directions here, so carry the park map. Forest roads cross water: the gravel road into Turkey Foot Campground is steep and includes a low water ford across War Fork Creek. And Kentucky writes no chain or traction law, so nothing is required of your tires by rule, which puts the whole weight of the decision on you.
Source 49
Passes and routes
-
Red River Gorge Scenic BywayPaved
46 miles
Stanton to Zachariah, on KY 11, 77, 715 and 402
The Forest Service calls it approximately 46 miles with a travel time of about one hour, beginning in Stanton on KY 11, following the Red River on KY 77, 715 and 402, and rejoining KY 11 to Zachariah. It passes the Gladie Visitor Center, Nada Tunnel and a long series of arches, and parallels the Red River, a designated wild and scenic river. The Transportation Cabinet measured the corridor in 2023: two lanes each 8 to 9 feet wide, a foot or less of paved shoulder, and 18.2 miles of steep grades and sharp curves that ask for less than the posted 35 mph. 18
- Vehicle
- Any car under 12 feet wide and 12 feet tall. Larger vehicles should not use the Nada Tunnel end
- Season
- Open year round
-
KY 77 at milepost 2.2 in Powell County, the western door into the gorge
A former railroad bore, measured by the Transportation Cabinet at roughly 900 feet long, 12 feet wide and 13 feet high, which it calls a one-way traffic bottleneck. The west approach has a sharp curve that hides oncoming traffic, and the study’s video recorded drivers entering eastbound and having to reverse back out, in some cases several vehicles at once. On the busiest Saturday observed in October 2022 the average wait in the peak hour was 65 seconds eastbound, and the longest queue was 29 vehicles. Traffic here roughly doubles between spring and autumn and peaks from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m. 49
- Vehicle
- One lane. Anything over 12 feet wide or 12 feet tall should use another entrance
-
Tunnel Ridge Road
1,178 ft 5 miles, the last two gated
The Grays Arch and Auxier Ridge trailheads in the Red River Gorge
A five-mile ridgetop road that the Forest Service calls the only connection between the trails in the Grays Arch area and Auxier Ridge, with the last two miles gated and closed to vehicles. Roadside parking is not permitted anywhere on it. This is also where the Red River Gorge camping rules bite hardest: tents must be at least 300 feet from the road, the parking lots and the official trails, and a forest recreation pass must be bought and displayed in the vehicle for backcountry camping in the gorge between 10 p.m. and 6 a.m. 17
- Vehicle
- Any car. Park only in the designated lots
-
Zilpo National Forest Scenic Byway
1,389 ft 11 miles
Cave Run Lake to the Zilpo Recreation Area
The Forest Service describes a gently curving eleven-mile road through eastern hardwood forest that takes about 20 minutes each way and ends at the Zilpo Recreation Area, on a peninsula on the south shore of Cave Run Lake. The same page warns that many Forest Service roads here are narrow and rocky, out of more than 600 miles of road on the forest. The forest’s Cave Run pages put the lake at 8,270 acres, administered by the Forest Service with the Corps of Engineers running the dam, with 200 tent and RV sites at Twin Knobs and 13 primitive boat-in sites at Claylick. 16
- Vehicle
- Any car
- Season
- Open year round
-
Laurel River Lake forest roads
KY 192 and KY 312 west of London, on the London Ranger District
Laurel River Lake holds 5,600 acres of clear, deep water and nearly 200 miles of tree-lined shore, and the road network around it is the most useful gravel in the middle of the state. The Forest Service administers the lake and its shoreline while the Corps of Engineers operates the dam. Access runs off KY 192 and KY 312 onto numbered forest roads to the Grove, Holly Bay, Craigs Creek, Marsh Branch and Flatwoods complexes. Several of the boat ramps here are among the sites where the forest recreation pass is required. 23
- Vehicle
- Paved highways to gravel forest roads. Check the district Motor Vehicle Use Map
- Season
- Open year round
-
Woodlands Trace National Scenic BywayPaved
43 miles
Grand Rivers, Kentucky to Dover, Tennessee, the length of Land Between the Lakes
The spine of the peninsula, designated a National Scenic Byway and listed by FHWA at 43 miles with about 1.5 hours of driving. Off it run the numbered forest roads that make up the rest of the network, among them Pisgah Point on Road 111, Duncan Lake on 132, Energy Lake on 134 and Crooked Creek-Jenny Ridge on 153, which the recreation area says vary from paved to gravel. Licensed vehicles are permitted on numbered roads only as shown on the Motor Vehicle Use Map. The Elk and Bison Prairie is a three-mile loop off the Trace with a $5 vehicle fee. 33
- Vehicle
- Any car. Speed limit 50 mph on the Trace, 15 in campgrounds
- Season
- Open year round
-
Turkey Bay OHV Area
About 100 miles of trail
The only place off-highway vehicles may be ridden at Land Between the Lakes
Approximately 100 miles of primary, secondary and tertiary trails. Permits are $100 a year or $20 for one to three days, and primitive camping is $12 per camping unit per night, where two tents or one camper counts as a unit, with two 24-hour generator areas, chemical toilets and drinking water. Riding is sunrise to sunset, 15 mph on the entrance road and 10 in the camping and unloading areas. The recreation area tells riders to call before they haul, because trails close when the ground is saturated to prevent resource damage. 31
- Vehicle
- Registered OHVs with a displayed permit sticker, a working spark arrester and muffler, and DOT helmets
- Season
- Riding dawn to dark. Gatehouse open seven days 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. March to November, Thursday to Sunday 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. December to February
-
Redbird Crest Trail
69-mile loop
Sugar Creek, Peabody and Bear Creek trailheads on the Redbird Ranger District
The big one in eastern Kentucky, a 69-mile loop on a district of 145,850 acres worked from Big Creek. Sections 1 to 6 take motorized vehicles 64 inches or less in width with engines up to 1,000 cc, sections 7 to 13 vehicles 50 inches or less, sections 14 and 15 licensed street-legal vehicles, and sections 16 to 22 single-track machines such as dirt bikes. The Forest Service says steep terrain in some areas may be difficult for beginners, and that the trail generally follows ridgetops through rugged country. The OHV pass is $15 a day or $60 a year. 19
- Vehicle
- Signed by section: 64 inches, 50 inches, street-legal or single-track
- Season
- Open year round
-
White Sulphur OHV Trail
17 miles
The White Sulphur trailhead on the London Ranger District
A 17-mile system of connecting loops in moderately rugged terrain, mostly along ridgetops, designed for novice to intermediate riders. Most of it is hardened with gravel to hold against erosion, which is why it survives the rain better than bare ground would. The season is the point: this trail is given over to walkers for five months of the year and no OHV may use it then. Proof of payment must be displayed on the machine as a sticker or carried by the rider. 20
- Vehicle
- Off-highway vehicles with a $15 day or $60 annual pass
- Season
- Open to OHVs May 1 to November 30, and to walkers December 1 to April 30
-
Highway 297 and KY 742 into the Big South Fork gorge
Across the Big South Fork river gorge, and down to Blue Heron on the Kentucky side
The Park Service warns that driving Highway 297 through the Big South Fork river gorge brings steep grades up to 13 percent and sharp hairpin curves, and it publishes a separate set of directions for anything exceeding 40 feet of truck and trailer combined, because the switchbacks are hard to manage in a long vehicle. It says similar steep conditions exist on Highway 742 down into Blue Heron, the Kentucky-side mining community with its own campground. The same page tells visitors in capital letters not to rely on satellite navigation for addresses here. 40
- Vehicle
- Not recommended for truck and trailer combinations over 40 feet
-
Skyland Road to the Pinnacle OverlookPaved
2,440 ft 4 miles
Middlesboro to the overlook above Cumberland Gap
Four miles of two-lane road to about 2,440 feet, with a 150-yard walk from the parking area to the viewing platform. The Park Service closes it to any vehicle 20 feet or longer and shuts it from time to time in winter. Below it, the Cumberland Gap Tunnel carries US 25E about 0.9 mile through the mountain inside the park boundary; recreational vehicles, camp trailers and campers are allowed through with LP gas turned off, and traffic is stopped briefly while certain commercial vehicles are escorted. 45
- Vehicle
- Closed to vehicles 20 feet or longer
- Season
- Periodically closed in winter for weather
-
Green River Ferry Road and the ferry
The north and south sides of Mammoth Cave National Park
The only direct crossing inside the park. Vehicles and trailers boarding the ferry must not exceed 12 tons or a length of 16 feet, and operations are subject to closure as water levels move, which makes the long way round a normal part of a visit rather than an exception. The park publishes a ferry hotline for that reason. Campground limits on the same side of the park run to the same theme: 38 feet at Mammoth Cave Campground, 40 at Maple Springs, and no RVs or trailers at all at Houchin Ferry. 37
- Vehicle
- Nothing over 12 tons or 16 feet, and no commercial vehicles on park roads
- Season
- Ferry runs 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. Central, and closes when the river is too high or too low
-
Forest Road 345 to Turkey Foot
War Fork Creek in Jackson County, on the London Ranger District
A short piece of road that shows what the Central Forest asks of a vehicle. The Forest Service says the gravel road into Turkey Foot Campground is steep and includes a low water ford across War Fork Creek, which is the kind of crossing that decides a trip in a state that runs between 38 and 58 inches of rain a year. Nearby, S-Tree Campground sits on a ridge above Horse Lick Creek with 20 first-come, first-served sites, and the centermost trailhead of the Sheltowee Trace is at McKee. Mill Creek Wildlife Management Area, 13,009 acres, is managed jointly with the state. 24
- Vehicle
- Gravel and steep, with a ford. High clearance is the sensible choice after rain
-
Sheltowee Trace National Recreation Trail
Nearly 290 miles
Northern Kentucky to Pickett State Park, Tennessee
The backbone of the forest trail system, which the trail page puts at nearly 290 miles while the forest’s own About the Area page calls it the 300+ mile Sheltowee Trace. Both figures are the agency’s. It matters to a driver for two reasons: horses, mountain bikes and off-highway vehicles under 50 inches wide are permitted only on the sections designated for them, and the route follows road corridors between tracts of national forest and crosses private land in places. Walking is allowed on all of it. Check the district Motor Vehicle Use Map before assuming any piece of it takes a machine. 21
Rules worth knowing
- One forest, four districts, 708,879 acres
- The Daniel Boone National Forest is managed from four district offices sharing 708,879 acres. It holds more than 600 miles of trail including the 300-plus-mile Sheltowee Trace, 13,853 acres of lake and 2,516 miles of stream open to the public on forest land, and nearly 3,500 miles of cliff line with one of the highest concentrations of rock shelters in the country. Those cliff lines are why the forest reads as bigger than its acreage: the road network threads between them. 6
- Which district office to ask
- The forest publishes its offices as the place to get answers about roads and closures, and the districts are not interchangeable: the Cumberland covers the Red River Gorge country in the north, the London the central counties, the Stearns the south around the Big South Fork, and the Redbird the eastern coalfield. A question about a gate belongs to one of them, not to the forest. 7
- The Cumberland district holds the Gorge
- The Cumberland Ranger District office is the one to contact about the Red River Gorge, Cave Run Lake and the roads around them, which together carry most of the forest’s visitors. It is the busiest ground in eastern Kentucky, and its closures and permit rules change more often than the rest of the forest’s. 8
- The London district is 208,044 acres across eight counties
- The London Ranger District covers 208,044 acres in Laurel, Whitley, Rockcastle, Jackson, Estill, Owsley, Lee and Pulaski counties. Eight counties for one district is the shape of the whole forest: long strips of public land between private holdings, which is why a road can leave national forest and re-enter it twice in ten miles. 9
- The Stearns district runs the southern end
- The Stearns Ranger District covers more than 171,000 acres across four counties of southeastern Kentucky, with three campgrounds, three picnic areas and more than 120 miles of trail. It adjoins the Big South Fork, so a trip there usually crosses between Forest Service and Park Service rules in the same day. 10
- The Redbird district is the eastern coalfield
- The Redbird Ranger District covers 145,850 acres in Clay, Leslie, Owsley, Perry, Harlan and Knox counties, from an office at Big Creek. It is the least visited part of the forest and the one where the Redbird Crest trail system and the surrounding road network are the reason to go. 11
- Cave Run is an 8,270-acre lake with a forest around it
- Cave Run Lake provides flood protection and water supply to the communities around it, and the forest roads on its shore are the most accessible gravel driving in the northern district. Horses, mountain bikes and off-highway vehicles under 50 inches wide are permitted only on sections designated for them, and users may follow road corridors between tracts of national forest and may cross private land where a road does. 22
- Two wild rivers meet in the south of the forest
- The 16.1-mile section of the Cumberland from Summer Shoals to the backwaters of Lake Cumberland is a designated Kentucky Wild River, and so is the 15.9-mile segment of the Rockcastle from the KY 1956 bridge down to the same backwaters, which the forest says includes one of the most challenging whitewater runs in the state. The roads that reach the confluence are the forest’s, and the water is what people come for. 25
- Land Between the Lakes is 170,000 acres on a peninsula
- Land Between the Lakes National Recreation Area covers more than 170,000 acres of forest, wetland and open land on the peninsula between Kentucky Lake and Lake Barkley. It is managed by the Forest Service under its own supervisor’s orders rather than as part of a national forest, so its rules stand alone. 26
- At Land Between the Lakes, 50 yards from the road is the limit
- Supervisor’s Order 60-08-13 prohibits possessing or using a motor vehicle more than 50 yards from forest development roads designated for the purpose, and parking is permitted no further than one vehicle length from a legal road. Everyone 18 and over must hold a backcountry camping permit, the maximum stay is 21 nights in any 30 consecutive days, and on day 22 the camping unit and its occupants must move off Land Between the Lakes. All campfires go in fire rings. 29
- Turkey Bay closes when the ground is saturated
- The Turkey Bay off-highway vehicle area runs a gatehouse seven days a week from 8 to 4 between March and November, and Thursday to Sunday from 8 to 3 between December and February. Its call-before-you-haul notice exists because trails close when the ground is saturated to prevent resource damage. All users must wear DOT-approved helmets while a vehicle is in operation, except in a fully enclosed vehicle. 32
- The named forest roads, and what they are surfaced with
- Land Between the Lakes publishes its road system by number, including Forest Roads 111, 114, 116, 127, 132, 134, 147, 153, 201, 213, 230, 233, 324 and 396, and says plainly that roads vary from paved to gravel. Kentucky Lake Drive is a three-mile drive at the northern end, and the Elk and Bison Prairie is a three-mile loop through 700 acres at five dollars a vehicle. 34
- The Woodlands Trace is 43 miles across a state line
- The Woodlands Trace National Scenic Byway runs 43 miles from Grand Rivers, Kentucky, to Dover, Tennessee, and the Federal Highway Administration suggests an hour and a half to drive it or a day to enjoy it. The speed limit on the Trace is 50, and 15 in campgrounds. Kentucky has seven federally listed byways in all. 35
- Mammoth Cave is over 400 miles of passage
- The cave system stretches over 400 miles, the longest known in the world, and the park above it carries the roads and the ferries this guide is about. It is worth understanding the relationship: the surface trip and the cave trip are separate bookings, and the surface roads are quiet in a way the visitor centre is not. 36
- Every camp at Mammoth Cave needs a permit
- All camping in the park requires a permit. Mammoth Cave Campground has 111 sites with a 38-foot RV limit, open 1 March to 30 November; Maple Springs has seven group sites with a 40-foot limit; Houchin Ferry has 12 tent-only sites year round and takes no RVs or trailers. Green River Ferry runs 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. Central, closes on fluctuating water levels, and takes vehicles up to 12 tons and 16 feet. 38
- Big South Fork protects 125,000 acres of plateau
- Big South Fork National River and Recreation Area encompasses 125,000 acres of the Cumberland Plateau around the free-flowing Big South Fork of the Cumberland River. It spans the Kentucky and Tennessee line, and the Kentucky side is reached through Stearns and Whitley City. 39
- A backcountry permit at Big South Fork is five dollars
- Backcountry permits are required and are valid for a single camping trip of no more than 14 days at one site, with a total of 30 cumulative days in a calendar year. They cost five dollars for one to six people, ten for seven to twelve, fifteen for thirteen to eighteen and twenty for nineteen to twenty-four. Motor vehicle and e-bike travel are permitted on designated adjacent area roads and multiuse trails unless signed otherwise, and tracked vehicles are prohibited. 42
- Five developed campgrounds, and no outside firewood
- Big South Fork runs five developed campgrounds, with Blue Heron the developed one on the Kentucky side and Alum Ford primitive. Firewood brought in from outside the park is prohibited, which is standard across the region and enforced. 43
- Cumberland Gap is 14,000 acres where three states meet
- Cumberland Gap National Historical Park covers 14,000 acres of wilderness with 85 miles of trail, and the park makes a point of the spot where you can stand in three states at once. The road to the Pinnacle Overlook is the drive; everything else is walked. 44
- An ATV is titled in Kentucky but not registered
- Kentucky requires all-terrain vehicles to be titled but not registered, and the statute prohibits operating one on private property without the landowner’s consent. That title-without-registration arrangement is why an ATV cannot simply be plated for road use here, and why the road network is the only legal way for a full-size vehicle to travel between tracts. 52
- During fire season, no burning within 150 feet of woodland
- The Division of Forestry states that during fire seasons it is illegal to burn anything within 150 feet of any woodland or brushland between the hours the statute sets, and that burning garbage or anything other than natural plant matter is illegal at any time. Local fire departments and counties set further restrictions on top. The statute is KRS 149.400. 54
- Twenty-six Corps projects hold the water
- The Corps of Engineers lists 26 projects in Kentucky, among them Barkley, Lake Cumberland, Green River, Nolin River, Barren River, Rough River, Taylorsville, Yatesville, Buckhorn, Carr Creek, Cave Run, Laurel River, Dale Hollow, Fishtrap, Grayson, Paintsville, Dewey and Martins Fork, plus the Kentucky River locks and six Ohio River pools. In a state with one national forest, that is where most of the public shoreline and much of the camping sits. 55
- Seventeen resort parks, and a fourteen-day limit
- Kentucky runs 17 state resort parks with lodges as well as campgrounds, which is unusual among the states and useful when the weather closes the dirt. Campground regulations set a fourteen-day limit, camping is permitted only in designated areas, and parking must be confined to designated areas where they exist. 57
- On wildlife areas, vehicles stay on maintained public roads
- Camping is permitted only in designated areas and only on certain wildlife management areas, and mechanised vehicles other than wheelchairs are permitted only on maintained roads open to public use. Parking is confined to designated areas where they exist. Kentucky’s wildlife areas are not a dispersed camping resource, and treating them as one is the most common mistake here. 58
- Dispersed camping: 14 days, and stay off the cliffs
- The Daniel Boone allows a consecutive 14 days or less in any 30-day period. Camping is prohibited within 100 feet of the base of any cliff or the back of any rock shelter, within 300 feet of any developed road or trail in the Red River Gorge including Tunnel Ridge Road and its parking lots, and within 300 feet of the water’s edge or of any road or trail leading to it at Cave Run Lake, Laurel River Lake or Lake Cumberland. Someone must be present the first night, and gear cannot be left unattended for more than 24 hours. 12
- Two forest passes, and what each one buys
- The Daniel Boone recreation pass is $5 for one day, $7 for three or $50 a year per vehicle, and it is required for backcountry camping in the Red River Gorge between 10 p.m. and 6 a.m., at Natural Arch, at Billy Branch and at a long list of boat ramps and shooting ranges. Day and three-day passes expire at noon on the day after the last day; annual passes expire December 31. The OHV pass is separate: $15 a day or $60 a year, carried as a sticker on the machine or a wristband on the rider, for the Redbird Crest and White Sulphur systems. Dispersed camping anywhere else on the forest is free. 13
- Four Motor Vehicle Use Maps, and they decide where you may drive
- The Daniel Boone publishes one Motor Vehicle Use Map for each of its four ranger districts: Cumberland, London, Stearns and Redbird. The forest says they show the roads, trails and areas designated for motor vehicle use under 36 CFR 212.51, and that each map also notes the types of vehicle allowed on each route and any seasonal restriction. Off-highway vehicle use is allowed only on designated trails, and the district map is what makes a route legal. Land Between the Lakes keeps its own Motorized Vehicle Use Map on the same footing. Carry this year’s map for every district you will cross. 14
- Land Between the Lakes: a permit to sleep
- Every person 18 and over needs a Backcountry Camping Permit to use a backcountry camping area or to camp dispersed, at $10 for three days or $50 a year. Five designated backcountry areas sit on the lakeshore: Twin Lakes, Demumbers Bay, Pisgah Bay, Ginger Bay and Neville Bay, and the recreation area also points campers to spots at the ends of forest roads. The permit does not cover the self-service or developed campgrounds. Read the camping rules and the Motor Vehicle Use Map together before choosing a site, because the two decide the question between them. 30
- Numbered roads only, and no ATVs off Turkey Bay
- At Land Between the Lakes licensed vehicles are permitted on numbered roads only as shown on the Motorized Vehicle Use Map, parking is allowed no further than one vehicle length from a legal road, and a supervisor’s order prohibits possessing or using a motor vehicle more than 50 yards from a designated forest development road. Off-highway vehicles are confined to the Turkey Bay area by a second order. The speed limit is 50 mph on Woodlands Trace and 15 in campgrounds. The maximum stay is 21 nights in any 30 consecutive days, and on day 22 the camping unit and its occupants move off. 28
- Kentucky’s ATV law is about the highway, not a trail sticker
- KRS 189.515 bars operating an all-terrain vehicle on any public highway or roadway or its right-of-way, with narrow exceptions, and bars it on public property unless the agency responsible has approved the use. A rider 16 or over on public property must wear approved protective headgear whenever the machine is moving, and a permitted crossing must be at as close to a right angle as is practical with no more than two-tenths of a mile travelled on the highway. Kentucky titles ATVs but does not register them, and a machine needs a 17-character VIN to be titled. There is no statewide trail sticker, so the pass you carry is the land manager’s. 51
- Fire hazard seasons are dated, and they are the law
- Kentucky sets two forest fire hazard seasons each year: February 15 to April 30 and October 1 to December 15. During both it is illegal to burn anything within 150 feet of any woodland or brushland between 6 a.m. and 6 p.m., and it is illegal at any time to burn garbage or anything other than natural plant matter such as brush and woody debris. The Division of Forestry enforces this and directs travellers to check local fire department and county restrictions as well. At Land Between the Lakes all campfires must be contained in fire rings, and they are prohibited outside designated camping areas in Turkey Bay. 53
- Big South Fork: a permit, 14 days and a spark arrester
- Backcountry permits are required and are valid for a single trip of no more than 14 days at one site, with a total of 30 cumulative days in a calendar year. The fee runs $5 for one to six people and rises with group size. Motor vehicle and e-bike travel is permitted on designated adjacent-area roads and multiuse trails unless signed or closed. Rail buggies and other off-road vehicles must carry a Forest Service approved spark arrester and a functioning muffler, straight pipes are prohibited, and tracked vehicles are banned except for administrative use. Firewood brought in from outside the park is prohibited. 41
- State ground runs to its own rules
- On wildlife management areas the Department of Fish and Wildlife Resources allows mechanized vehicles only on maintained roads open to public use, requires parking in designated areas where they exist, and permits camping only in designated areas and only on certain wildlife management areas. In the state park system the maximum stay is 14 days unless the park manager grants a waiver, check-in is 2 p.m. and check-out 1 p.m., quiet time starts at 11 p.m., and no more than two vehicles are allowed per campsite counting the RV. Seventeen of the parks are resort parks with lodges and cabins as well as campgrounds. 56
- No chain law, but a published plough order
- The Transportation Cabinet publishes no traction or chain requirement, so nothing about your tires is a legal question in Kentucky. What it does publish is the order in which roads get cleared. Priority A is interstates, parkways and major arteries, with a goal of a one-hour turnaround on interstates and two hours on other A routes. Priority B is less travelled highways at four hours. Priority C is mainly rural and low-volume routes, treated within eight hours of the start of a routine snow event and on an eight-hour turnaround after that. Read that as a map of where you will be last. 50
Bureau of Land Management (BLM)
US Forest Service (USFS)
National Park Service (NPS)
US Fish and Wildlife (USFW)
Bureau of Reclamation (USBR)
Department Of Defense (DOD)
Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA)
Other Federal
State
Local
Alaska Native Lands (Patented or Interim Conveyed)
Alaska Native Allotment
Road
Primitive Road
Road
Primitive Road
Trail
Roads open to all Vehicles, Yearlong
Roads open to all Vehicles, Seasonal
Roads open to highway legal vehicles only, Yearlong
Roads open to highway legal vehicles only, Seasonal
Special Designation, Yearlong
Special Designation, Seasonal
Trails open to all vehicles, Yearlong
Trails open to all vehicles, Seasonal
Trails open to vehicles 50" or less in width, Yearlong
Trails open to vehicles 50" or less in width, Seasonal
Trails open to motorcycles, Yearlong
Trails open to motorcycles, Seasonal
Special Designation, Seasonal
Trails Open to Wheeled Vehicles Only < 50" in Width, Yearlong
Trails Open to Wheeled Vehicles Only < 50" or Less in Width, Seasonal
Wilderness Area
Wilderness Study Area
