Winter Wonderland
A guide to Kentucky's best winter diversions

Winter’s chill has settled in and with it, cabin fever. Cooped up minds and bodies long for the great outdoors, but if you can’t swing a tropical getaway, don’t despair. A surprising number of intriguing wintertime diversions await throughout the Bluegrass State. Just hop in your car, top off that tank and explore the possibilities.

At our first stop, you can work off some of those calories you’ve been accumulating, yet not have to brave blustery, wintry winds. In a cave, the temperature remains constant no matter the weather outside. With more than 365 charted miles, Kentucky’s Mammoth Cave boasts the longest system ever discovered. This eerie underground chamber is open all year with seven-day-a-week tours ranging from easy to extremely strenuous. Only three-quarters of a mile long, the ranger-led Discovery Tour gives beginners a good leg stretch. The Star Chamber tour explores rock formations by romantic lantern light while the Wild Cave tour is just the ticket for belly crawling mud scooters. If you’re uncomfortable with heights or close spaces, drop the family off and zip over to the town of Horse Cave for a peek into the awesome above-ground American Cave Museum.

Come evening, compare cavern tales as you warm your cockles in a Jacuzzi at Cave Spring Farm Bed and Breakfast, only 10 minutes away in tiny, antique store-laden Smiths Grove. Cave Spring, a 17-acre country estate, offers a full breakfast with a stay in an 1857 home, a couple of cabins with whirlpools or a restored, pre-Civil War schoolhouse. All overlook either rolling pastures or a woodsy five-acre wildlife habitat.

Want to watch wildlife? Then head toward West Kentucky’s Land Between the Lakes National Recreation Area, a 170,000-acre peninsula between Kentucky Lake and Lake Barkley.

A growing herd of elk, released here in 1997, share the drive-though elk and bison prairie. With 700 acres of restored prairie habitat typical of a 1700s grassland, it is the largest publicly owned buffalo herd east of the Mississippi River. From the warmth of your vehicle, you can spot the big wooly bison and antlered elk (more often at dawn and at dusk), sometimes at surprisingly close range. Bring your binoculars on the Presidents’ Weekend tour and learn all about these critters.

As an active participant in the nation’s efforts to re-establish the eagle population in Western Kentucky and Tennessee, the Land Between the Lakes is home to a wintering eagle population of more than 150 birds. Now’s the time to spot ’em on a three-hour Eagles Van Tour (through mid-February), with special Valentine’s Day and Presidents’ Day offerings.

Wind down your Jackson Purchase safari at Lake Barkley Lodge, a splendid wood and glass structure designed by Edward Durrell Stone, whose creations include the Museum of Modern Art in Manhattan and the Kennedy Center in D.C. Here, you can take the chill off in a heated pool and sauna, then get your heart pumping in a well-stocked fitness center.

For breakfast, treat yourself to one of 18 flavors of fresh, hot muffins at the Lite Side Deli, just up the pike in Grand Rivers.

Central Kentucky’s answer to a warm-your-innards breakfast awaits at the 1860s-era Storybook Inn in the historic Rose Hill section of Versailles. Think quiche, waffles and/or soufflés. All fresh. All divine.

“Our breakfast is so substantial,” says innkeeper Elise Buckley-Smith, “that most people can’t eat all of it and don’t eat lunch afterwards.”

That means you’ll be well fortified for a mind-expanding day in the state capital. Start at the Kentucky History Center by taking a journey through Smithsonian quality displays from prehistoric Kentucky through the eras to the present day Commonwealth, exploring arrowheads, flatboats, coal mining, horseracing, famous personalities and hand-stitched quilts along the way. Swing through your family tree in its state-of-the-art genealogy research and collections library.

Call ahead for a guided tour of the Old State Capitol, a gorgeous Greek Revival-style facility built in 1830 that served as the State House until 1910. Then check out the Kentucky Museum of Military History, a former arsenal that’s chock full of an impressive collection of firearms, weaponry, artillery, flags and personal equipment from the Revolutionary War through Desert Storm.

Round out your day with a taste of Kentucky spirits at the oldest distilling site in the country. At Buffalo Trace, you can see how bourbon is made and take a sip to warm you on the inside when it’s nippy on the out.

Because they’re on the other side of the glass, the 55 or so sharks at Newport Aquarium can’t nip your nose at our final destination. Named the Midwest’s No. 1 aquarium in the 2004 Zagat Survey’s U.S. Family Travel Guide, this state-of-the-art treasure features thousands of animals in a million gallons of water. The current crowd favorite is Sweet Pea, the only shark ray in the Western Hemisphere. Allow a few hours to ogle the octopi, otters et al.

Then point your Pontiac to nearby Burlington for a sumptuous repast – perhaps shrimp and grits or pecan-crusted pork tenderloin – at the 1822 Tousey House Restaurant. Then tuck in your tired tootsies for the night in 1830s splendor at antique-filled Willis Graves Bed & Breakfast Inn.

Katherine Tandy Brown is a staff writer for The Lane Report.
editorial@lanereport.com

Back to Tourism Index

Back to January Issue

Copyright 1996-2006, by Kentucky Business Online.  All rights reserved.

Editorial content is copyright 2006, Lane Communications Group
All editorial material is fully protected and must not be reproduced in any manner without prior permission.

The Lane Report is a trademark of Lane Communications Group.  All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.