RVing On A Budget
We visited the Boonesborough State Park Campground for a weekend stay in May 2005. We weren't completely dissatisfied with our stay, but we weren't overwhelmed either. The campground was clean and maintained. It had hot showers and the bath houses were cleaned regularly. Like most other Kentucky state parks, there was a laundry facility, miniature golf and a playground. The playground equipment was fairly new and comprehensive. Our girls spent several hours there.
We weren't too pleased with the camp sites overall. Site layout and spacing was good, but there were no directions indicating which way to travel in order to back in our trailer. We had to make several passes to get oriented properly so to be able to back in at the correct angle. We found a few shaded sites (we like trees and seclusion), but were unable to level the trailer. The sites required the trailer to be raised almost five inches to be level left and right. Site length was another problem. None of the pavement on the sites we saw would accommodate our trailer (29') and our tow vehicle (Toyota Tundra). We had to park in the grass on our site. Many guests at the campground had this problem too. For those people who had more than one vehicle, those sites appeared cluttered and took away from the overall appearance of the campground.
The campground was definitely clean and mostly pleasing to the eyes. However, we picked one of the few sites that looked directly and a monstrous piece of machinery. We never really figured out what it was (never asked either), but figured it had something to do with waste water treatment. This thing was at least 100 feet wide and almost three stories tall. There was a chain link fence around the equipment with some black screening material attached, but we could still see through (good masking attempt though). The fence wasn't nearly tall enough at only about twelve feet. Not only was the equipment unsightly, it was noisy too. It did not run constantly, which was good, but it seemed to be on for thirty to forty minutes every hour. It sounded like a slightly muffled generator when it was in operation.
Unfortunately the campground backs right up to two very noisy areas. There is a rock quarry to the rear and a major highway (US 627) that runs along side it. We avoided the sites that were a stone's throw away from the quarry, but there was nowhere that would be away from the highway. The quarry only operates till about five o'clock in the evening during the week so we only had to deal with that noise for a few hours. However, we had to put up with the traffic noise from the highway throughout the weekend. The traffic noise would not have been so bad if it weren't for the fact that the campground and US 627 are at the bottom of two very long and steep hills. Big trucks that had to engine-brake to slow down caused most of the noise.
We didn't really enjoy our stay aside from R&R, but it wasn't so bad that we wouldn't give it another chance. Our kids didn't participate in any of the planned park activites which could have made it a little more fun. Maybe next year we will drop in and give it another go.
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