“Come enjoy a subterranean adventure!”
The Carter County region has the highest concentration of caves to be found in any area of Kentucky. Two of the park’s caves offer guided tours year-round, Cascade Cave and X-Cave. Enjoy a subterranean adventure, created by nature over millions of years. Other attractions include a natural bridge, Golf, a lake, Camping, gemstone mine (for kids), Swimming and Traditional Hiking. Cave X is called this because it has 4 entrances that meet in the center, like an X. This cave is said to be haunted by two Cherokee lovers. It is said that warrior Huraken found this cave and its hidden vein of silver, but kept it a secret so that he could use it to make gifts for the chief’s daughter, Manuita. When Huraken didn’t come home after a battle, Manuita believed him dead and committed suicide by jumping off a cliff. But Huraken had only gone to the cave – he had decided to ask for Manuita’s hand in marriage and wanted to make her some gifts for the occasion. On his way home from the cave he came across Manuita’s body and hid it in the cave so he could watch over it. When the chief found out, he thought Huraken was to blame, and Huraken was sentenced to death. Huraken’s last request was to visit Manuita’s body one last time, but he never came out of the cave. Years later, inside the cave were found the bones of two bodies and some silver pieces. The caves and the legend have been written about in books.
Reviews of Carter Caves State Resort Park Campground
20 people have reviewed this location
Ratings Summary
Cell Coverage
Verizon 4G/5G
Confirmed by 10 users | Last reported on May 21, 2024AT&T 4G
Confirmed by 1 users | Last reported on June 08, 2019Reviews
No free access to caves.
Clean and quiet campsite. Most of the sites are not very level and there is only 30 amp service. The road getting into the park has many sharp curves but our 40ft super C with trailer made it fine. The cave tours were fun and informative. Worth the stay.
Beautiful park. We made a quick stop here and did some exploring then decided to do a 45 minute guided tour of X-Cave. So glad we did, our tour guide was very informative and made the tour fun. This will definitely be on my list to visit again. Would be great for kids!
We stayed here twice. Both times for just one night. The campground has electric hookups and washers and dryers. The campground was nice. Most sites were level but some were not. You can tour the caves .
One of my favorite roads into a state park so far, about 1 mile of winding road with rock and trees on one side and a running stream on the other....like a tunnel of nature, just beautiful...as i pulled into the campground i looked at all the sites with the trailers parked next to each other with nothing in between saying to myself, well it had a great entrance...pulled into the camp office, got my ticket and found my site along the edge of the woods, separate from everyone in the middle and really a nice spot! had 3 bars on my jetpack and 2 on the iphone lte...took a few pics...cant speak of the rest rooms or rest of camp, only stayed one night so i gave good to a couple categories
Nightly Rate: $28.00
Days Stayed: 1
Site Number: 10
RV Length: 36 ft
RV Type: Class A
Cell Coverage Rating
Verizon 4G
We got our 45' MH up the tight curvy access road and through the tighter campground roads but did I mention it was tight ?!? That said, this is a quiet park during the week and very busy and active with families on weekends. Lots of recreational options from caving, to hiking, to horseback riding, to fishing and more. Full review at https://ourepicfieldtrip.wpcomstaging.com/2018/10/26/campground-reviews-carter-caves-state-resort-park-olive-hill-ky/
Nightly Rate: $20.00
Days Stayed: 5
Site Number: -
RV Length: 45 ft
RV Type: Class A
Cell Coverage Rating
Verizon 4G
AT&T 4G
We stopped here for two nights on our trip through Kentucky. Water and electric only. The connections are far from site so needed our extenders but not all sites. We pre-registered so arrival was quick.
So much to do here-we could have stayed a week. We toured three caves: Cascade, Salt Peter, and X-Cave. All were very good. Did a few of the short hikes. They were great but didn’t have time to do longer ones.
There is a pool, mini golf, regular golf, lodge with a Tavern. Boat ramp, fishing.
Roads are narrow but can drive RV up/down. Sites are older state park so not very level but paved. Dump station is on the way out.
Nightly Rate: -
Days Stayed: -
Site Number: B06
Cell Coverage Rating
Verizon 4G
We reserved for the weekend. When we drove up to the campground we did not like the feel so we left. There is no space between sites. I was turned off when I saw a Lazyboy by a camper. The state park looks pretty, but not campground.
Nightly Rate: -
Days Stayed: -
Site Number: 38
RV Length: 18 ft
RV Type: Teardrop Trailer
The sites are pretty small. Beware if you own a large rig! Very limited on pull they sites. Bath houses were nothing to brag about. The hiking trails were beautiful and picturesque. $1.75 for washer dryer use at the laundry room. The campground is not conveniently located close to a town so bring what you need.
Nightly Rate: $27.00
Days Stayed: 2
Site Number: 12
RV Length: 23 ft
RV Type: Travel Trailer
Cell Coverage Rating
Verizon 4G
We stayed at Carter Caves SRP over Thanksgiving 2021. Being the off-season, our experience is not likely to represent non-off-season stays.
We did not examine the literature closely enough to realize that all water in the main camping area was shut-off in November. After scooting ourselves into a tricky backup parking situation (for a 40'-rig + tree placement) in site 80 (someone had already taken out the campsite's number post!), we realized there was no water coming from our spigot and had to drive over to the horse campground (close) to fill-up for the week. The bathrooms are also locked during the off-season in the main area, but again, the horse campground offers hot showers and restrooms (~1/2 walk). Interestingly, the laundromat (attached to the campground office) is open and working.
Our site (and many of the sites) wasn't overly level - but also wasn't obnoxiously not level. We snuck some blocks under the driver's side tires and got to level.
The campsites in this campground are close together - which is fine when no one else is here. It was incredibly quiet during our stay. A few nights there were a few other rigs in the campground - but mostly it was just us. The horse campground was full from Friday-Sunday, but otherwise completely open.
The trails here are beautiful and interesting. Most of the activities were closed while we were visiting (mini-golf, pool, horseback riding). There is a restaurant and lodge about a mile walk from the campground.
The road into the campground is traversable but winding.
The Verizon cell signal here is interesting. We had a great signal at site 80 - and noted a solid signal throughout the campground - but the horse campground has a 'cut-off' zone at the far end near the bathrooms. There is no Verizon signal throughout much of the park itself. The data speeds were fast enough to perform most tasks, although video-conferencing was jumbly at times. AT&T was worse than Verizon at our campsite.
Nightly Rate: $28.00
Days Stayed: 7
Site Number: 80
RV Length: 34 ft
RV Type: Fifth Wheel
Cell Coverage Rating
Verizon 4G
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Carter Caves State Resort Park Campground
Hours
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Parking
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Pets Allowed
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Restrooms
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Wifi
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Wheelchair Accessible
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Credit Cards Accepted
- Affiliation
- State park or forest
- Last Nightly Rate
- 37.0
- Longest Vehicle Length Reported
- 45 ft
- Lowest Nightly Rate
- 20.0
- Max Stay
- 14
- Sites Count
- 129
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Swimming Pool
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Paved Sites
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Fifty Amp
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Full Hookup
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Pull Through
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Tent Sites
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Dump Station
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Big Rigs
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Open Seasonally
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Age Restricted
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Boondock
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Cabin Sites
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Dispersed Sites
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Firewood
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Fulltime Residents
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Group Tent Sites
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Laundry
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Mobile Homes
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Permit Required
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Potable Water
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Propane
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Public Water
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Pull Through RV Sites
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Reservations
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Sewer Hookup
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Showers
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Sites
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Standard Tent Sites
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Water Hookup
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Outdoor Seating
- Rooms Count
- 28
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All Day Front Desk
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Meeting Facilities
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Outdoor Activities
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Adult Only
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