Giant Ice Age mammals like the Mastodon and Harlan's Ground Sloth travelled from afar to lick the mineral rich soil natural around Big Bone Lick State Park in Kentucky. Full of pleasure from proximity of the salty goodness of the minerals near the salt springs they discovered, I imagine, the animals fell over to their deaths, not wanting to stray too far from such a tasty snack. The springs attracted wildlife, providing a bountiful prey area for hunters. The name comes from the heaps of bones found around the area, including woolly mammoths, giant ground sloths, mastodons, and other Ice Age animals.
On the human side, Paleo-Indians (first American inhabitants around 16000BC), then Shawnee Indians (early 1700s), and eventually white settlers (post-1750) came to this area to make salt from the saline spring water. The Clay Hotel operated from 1815-1845, offering a health retreat in the restorative spring waters. In 1960, the area was established as a Kentucky state park along the Lewis and Clark National Historic Trail.
The park keeps a small herd of bison. You can follow the back parking lot at the Visitor Center to a paved trail, which brings you to a raised porch with view finders. If the bison aren't near the edge of the buffered fences then the viewfinder is a nice way to see them! You can continue walking along the perimeter of the herd and we were lucky that the bison were out right on the edge so we could get close (ish).
From the bison fact sheet, I learned that bison have poor vision but great senses of smell and hearing. They are unpredictable, untrusting, and ill-tempered. They can run up to 40 mph for as long as 30 minutes, turn quickly, and jump over objects up to 6 feet high. Do not fuck with bison. They look like big dumpy adorable cows, but they will mess you up.
Please let's take a moment to appreciate together the name of this park, which is situated near Beaverlick, KY, and it was 69 degrees for much of the time we were there.
Cool nature BINGO page that fit nicely into my Spring BINGO journal.
This was the first camping trip of the season! For a few years my family has been building a "camping cadence" where we try to get out at least once a month from April to September. (Before/after, it's too cold!) We don't always stick to it every month but this year we got together to invite more people and try to be more organized about it, so we'll see!
We had the campsite from Friday to Monday and people came and went as they could. I drove in Friday (left later than anticipated and got there after 11pm) and stayed until Sunday around 11am. The drive in was beautiful - I usually avoid tolls when I drive places and end up taking mountainous backroads with gorgeous views. I was with my dad on the drive home and we took a more direct route, but it was cool to see the differences between taking major highways vs the ways I usually go. (It's boring, sorry, I won't be doing that alone.)
Saturday afternoon into evening while everyone was sitting around chatting, holding close as the evening dipped further into chill (eventually we brought a buddy heater over and wrapped ourselves in blankets), the sunset brought a beautiful glow to the daffodils. They were arranged in bunches around the campgrounds so it was hard to miss it. I don't think I could have captured it that well with a phone camera, but I tried. I also challenged myself to a 60-minute sketch where I got really stuck on the details of the branches but I like it!
See the full photo album!