Looking for a place to camp near Columbus with your horse? Finding a place to camp in Kentucky with your horse is easier than ever. These scenic and easy-to-reach Kentucky campsites are perfect for your horse camping excursion.
Come out, relax and enjoy the complete resort atmosphere of the Kentucky Horse Park Campground!
A full service facility, our campground has many extras for your comfort including a grocery store/gift shop and two bathhouses with modern conveniences. During your stay, be sure to take advantage of our tennis, basketball, and volleyball courts, cool off in our junior Olympic-size swimming pool and participate in our planned activities.
For those seeking to stretch their legs a little more, venture out on the Legacy Trail, a 12-mile-long (8.5 miles is currently finished) paved walking and biking trail leading from the Kentucky Horse Park Campground to downtown Lexington.
Campers may also visit the world famous Kentucky Horse Park at a discounted rate and receive free parking with the purchase of their admission tickets when purchased at the Campground Store.
$24 - $45 / night
Nestled on the shores of Cave Run Lake, this camp is part of the larger Twin Knobs Recreation Area. There are more than 200 sites spread out over 10 loops under a dense forest of mixed conifer and deciduous trees. The recreation area includes two reservable group picnic areas. Group camping is also available.
Summer amphitheater programs and scheduled campground activities provide family fun and entertainment. The campground also has volleyball courts, basketball hoops and horseshoe pits. There is a boat ramp and beach. Popular lake activities include fishing, swimming, motor boating, windsurfing, sailing and water skiing. Scenic foot trails include the 2.5-mile Twin Knobs Shoreline Trail and the 1.5-mile Knob Overlook Trail.
Summer amphitheater programs and scheduled campground activities provide family fun and entertainment. The campground also has volleyball courts, basketball hoops and horseshoe pits. There is a boat ramp and beach. Popular lake activities include fishing, swimming, motor boating, windsurfing, sailing and water skiing. Scenic foot trails include the 2.5-mile Twin Knobs Shoreline Trail and the 1.5-mile Knob Overlook Trail.
The Daniel Boone National Forest embraces some of the most rugged terrain west of the Appalachian Mountains. The forest lies within the Cumberland Plateau, where steep forested slopes, sandstone cliffs and narrow ravines characterize the land in this region. Cave Run Lake is in the Cumberland District in the northernmost part of the forest. The lake is surrounded by the rolling hills of northeastern Kentucky.
The Morehead Office Visitor Center offers information about the Daniel Boone National Forest in addition to interpretive exhibits. A popular attraction within the Daniel Boone National Forest is the Red River Gorge Geological Area, which features more than 100 natural sandstone arches.
$40 - $43 / night
Near Red River Gorge and Natural bridge
Set back almost a mile from the main road on its own private drive, Lago Linda Hideaway provides security and privacy for its campers in a gorgeous setting. The 35 Piney Woods and Lazy Oaks campsites (which can be reserved in advance) lie on ridge tops among groves of oak trees, allowing campers to spread out and enjoy as much privacy as they wish. All of these campsites are graveled and have electrical hookups.
Each site has its own city water, picnic table, and fire ring. In addition, a large, grassy meadow provides ample overflow camping for tent and car campers, including a big, covered, cooking pavilion with electricity along with another covered area that provides additional shelter for a number of tents.
Lago Linda Hideaway has a bathhouse with hot showers and flush toilets, as well as Broadband Internet access. Well-behaved children and dogs are welcome to this accommodating environment.
$12 - $86 / night
Camp out in Taylorsville Lakes RV campground, which has a central service building with laundry. Ten sites of the campground are set aside for horse camping. These sites have water and electricity and share the RV camp's laundry room.
$21 - $32 / night
S-Tree Campground sits on a ridge above Horse Lick Creek on London Ranger District near McKee in Jackson County, Kentucky. A small picnic area features a historic picnic shelter that was constructed in the 1930s by the Civilian Conservation Corps. The campground receives heavy weekend use from off-highway vehicle users who ride the adjacent Sheltowee Trace National Recreation Trail, Section #25 and the Renfro Loop Trail. These trails may be accessed from the campground. Make this page look nicer by submitting photos of your visit to S-Tree Campground. Learn more... This campground cannot accommodate trailers 25 feet or more due to one lane roads and no turn-outs. Each campsite has a picnic table, tent pad, fire ring and lantern pole. No electricity or dump station available.Vault toilets are centrally located. Campsites and shelter are available on a first-come, first-served basis. Loop A has two double campsites. Loop B has two fire circles. All of the campsites are wooded. Picnicking nearby: A picnic shelter with tables is available on a first-come, first-served basis. Other picnic sites are located near an area where a fire lookout tower once stood. S-Tree Campground Map View S-Tree Campground Guide & Map (pdf) S-Tree Fire Tower once stood near the entrance to the campground. Towers like these were important tools in detecting and fighting devastating forest fires. Fire towers were home to the lookouts who ran them. A tower cab was just big enough for a wood stove, two cots, a cabinet, storage box, small table, and a stool. The all-important alidade, or fire finder, stood in the middle of the room. By the mid-1970s, firefighters used aircraft for fire detection. Many towers, like one that stood here, were torn down because they could no longer be maintained in a safe condition. Nearby Trails: Renfro Loop Trails Sheltowee Trace Trail #100 Section 25
$36 - $45 / night
$20 - $30 / night
Just stopped for one night late in the afternoon and was easy to get off the interstate. Very nice grounds, clean restrooms, and quiet
Excellent campground. Clean and quiet. Can get busy but sites are not tight but spread out and plenty of space. Fine gravel sites with well kept grounds, shower house, and attentive host. We want to return and visit more Bourbon Trail Distilleries.
The campground is easy to navigate. The ranger met us on the way in and was super-friendly. Our site was small bit not cramped, and there was a picnic table and fire pit. Plenty of space between each site. Neighbors were quiet and friendly. Will camp here again!
Bathrooms were clean. Campsite was clean. Campground very well maintained. So peaceful!! I have cell service with Verizon. I was able to make & receive calls. Internet signal was not the best, but I wasn't there for that anyway!
Beautiful campground surrounded by horse country. Slightly rolling hills in campground but mostly level sites. We chose site 13 because it looked level in pics and had some open green space behind for our dog (neighboring site did as well). Able to set up with no boards or leveling blocks.
Lots of trees in campground (leaves hadn’t started back yet) and medium size lots with water and electric only. Two dump stations available. 2 laundromats, a pool (closed when we were here), and large camp store.
Came for just one night. It was decorated beautifully for Christmas. Site wasn’t the easiest to back in. Obviously no sewer hookup which isn’t a huge problem. Hooked up to water and nothing came out. We got here at 9pm and left at 7:15am. Just an inconvenience but other than that it’s a beautiful park
Very clean. Really pretty. Felt a little out of place only bc I had an older camper.
Stayed on the F Loop next to the lake, fire pit, picnic table, level tent site and bathroom showers a short walk. Camp hosts very friendly and helpful. campsite are close together.
Love this campground. It is definitely one of our top spots. Reasonable price, lots of trees for shade, amenities are great - pool, playground, you can rent a golf cart if you want, you can visit the horse park and explore on the golf cart
What a gorgeous campground! The grounds are full of grass and well manicured. Campsites are gravel and level. We were on a very quiet loop with just 4 electric/water RV sites. We were just doing a travel overnight but definitely will go back to stay a few days! Bathrooms were very clean and the staff was super friendly!
We always make sure this is our #1 spot to go it's our home base campground , love the mature trees in the campground and the trail around the lake . It's beautiful ❤️ down here must visit.
This campground was a great place to stay. We stayed the weekend while we were in Lexington for the RailBird festival.
We stayed on an inner loop and was happy with our site but after scouting other sites, we would definitely go for an outer loop lakeside site next time. Gravel pads. Bathroom and showers were good. Quiet, peaceful campground with friendly staff. Enjoy all the lake activities!
Campground full. But still quiet group of people. Sites are not as spacious as most state parks but access to the horse park is fantastic.
Good level spots. Quiet the first week of April. Good picnic table and fire pit. Restrooms are not far from any of the site in the loop. Will update after we use the shower house. I thought that we would be able to walk from our location to the camp store. It is possible but not easy. The camp store and laundry were closed March 31, bought firewood at entry for $8 a bundle.
The shower/bath house is on a European level of well-equipped. Reasonably clean(a little bit of boot muck on the floors but you should be wearing shower shoes anyway in a public facility) Self flushing toilets, air dryers for your hands.
Well thought out for handicap accessibility as far as the toilet and shower stalls. Hand sinks could be a bit lower for folks using a chair but they do have a low hand dryer and no threshold in the doorway to get over.
There are windows that look into the bathroom and although they are up high, pervs and curious kids will find a way. Campground should def. frost them but if you have the stall door shut to the space you're using you can hide your shame. A+ on the restroom space. Seriously impressed.
Very well heated on a cold morning and although I didn't use the shower there were plenty of places in the shower stall to keep your things up off of anything wet. Single use stall and there were several. Door shuts and there is also a shower curtain to keep moisture off of your things.
Outlets by the sinks for hair dryer if you bring one.
Campground has hit or miss tent spots depending on how much space you need. We had a 3 person tent, 2 hammocks and a dog and we reserved spot 8 on the primitive loop and had more than enough room. There was a fire ring(one at every site) and two picnic tables. This spot, as most of them appeared to have enough room for at least 2 very large tents and a dining fly if that's your thing.
With the brush cover during May site P10, although small, seemed to be the most private. We were at P8 and couldn't see anything at P10 though the brush.
If you are looking for privacy, although you are still going to see headlights of cars on the loop road and hear pretty much everyone else on the Primitive loop P10 probably has the most privacy as far as brush shielding you. I would say that everything on the outer part of the Primitive loop towards the back is going to be the furthest away from other people but you are still going to hear everyone else. P6, P7, P8, P10 look the best to me as far as just being chill sites with a bit more space away from others.
All of the sites on the interior of the loop back into each other and those seemed to be more of the "party sites" the night that we stayed. A lot of competing blue tooth speaker music at very loud volumes well after the quite time of 11pm. Loud music started again at 7:58AM. It was Bollywood music, which was different and honestly kind of fun... we were already awake though.
Our site itself was fairly even although there were a lot of tree roots. No problem finding a grassy place to set up our tent however. We picked up all the trash, aside from a weird sock, left by previous campers so that aspect was a little sad... campers leaving cigarette butts and plastic water bottle caps laying around. Tree cover would be more than adequate at this site during a hot summer day. Water spigot is next to the dumpster by the shower house btw.
Bundles of wood were fairly small compared to some other campsites and unfortunately wrapped in plastic but the wood was good quality, dry, and didn't burn overly smoky. There is a nylon strap handle that will be stapled through the plastic wrap into one piece of the wood so if you want to burn that piece you'll need to pry the staples out/cut the strap off.
The woman working the registration check point, we didn't catch her name, was amazing, pleasant, helpful and gave great directions. She drove by a few times in a golf cart checking on things and didn't hassle anyone. If you ask at the check point for a map you will get a packet of papers with rules and a few different slightly blurry print outs, it's a lot of info and we found it helpful exploring a few of the points of interest in the park that you can drive to. Overall it was a fun experience and although it was louder than I expected when people did quiet down it was VERY quiet and we heard owls all night and what sounded like coyote howling in the distance.
Super good place for families!
We really enjoyed this park. Plenty of room for camper and car, big grass area and nice bathhouse.
We stayed for 5 days and will definitely be coming back.
The guard house is only manned for a short period of time. We wanted to get ice and wood when we arrived, but it was closed.
Plenty of places to visit while here. We did parts of the bourbon trail and just enjoyed our time at the campsite.
Spent 2 nights in spot 12. Is 45 spots. Smaller area but cheaper than others. Quiet in Oct. leaves were turning. Lake about 1 mile away from it. Only drawback was there trash run/pick up dumpster was 3 am on Friday morning ( only time they said anyone would do it). Other than that overall good with senior discount.
Wonderful area. Bath houses/restrooms were very clean and nice. (Single occupancy). Nice area. Beach area of lake was closed due to flooding.
Nice and level paved or primitive with electric for trailers and RVs to camp. We came late at night and were able to easily find a spot and pay in the morning, and the folks in the office were very accommodating. Shore power read as good from our tester. Note there’s no sewer hookup; dump only. Couldn’t ask for more! Plus they have horseback riding same day and pony rides for the kids if you’re interested.
Car camped in the primitive electric area. Parking is on grass - some spots are shaded. Primitive and primitive electric sites are FCFS. Lots of availability on Sunday night. Regular sites look nice - paved with picnic table, big trees. Clean bath house. Lots of amenities. Family friendly.
Nice campground. Enjoyed the horse park and discounts from campground.
Grounds are well keep and clean. Pool is a little dated but still clean and nice kids enjoyed it. Bath house is fine. Sights in loop B are not level we had to put the left side off the concrete and the right side on a level block to get level. Aside from that not to bad. Remember not FHU no sewer at any spot.
I really liked this campsite. We arrived around 7 pm because I forgot to figure in the time zone changes, lol. When we arrived I looked at my printout and could actually not read which loop or campsite we were in. It appeared it was loop 3 campsite 1-10, which I read backwards. Might be helpful to make this more clear.
The campsite was very nice, clean, but a little hard to get into because it had a narrow area where the RV went. Outside of that it was great.
There was no one at the entrance Sunday or Monday during our stay so we could not get ice or firewood unless we went down the main highway a ways to the Dollar General which had ice.
We had T-Mobile and there was very spotty service. And I must say the showers were very nice, though there was no shower curtain the pressure and heat were great after driving.
So this is probably a campsite I would go back to.
Lovely campsite at #42. #41 and #43 have more all day shade but fear not - a young tree is growing away at the edge of #42.
Used the showers and laundry. Swam in the lake - no beach.
TMobile phones - no calls, able to text, slow website access. Couldn't work remotely from here.
Overall this is a nice campground for primitive camping. The majority of the sites are spaced out and private but unfortunately I couldn't find any pictures online of the sites so the one we got was not private. We stayed at site #4 and it is best suited for a group of friends because your neighbors are 10-15 yards away with no trees or anything in between. The biggest issue with site #4 is there is no picnic table. Luckily we were only staying one night so not a big deal but there was no mention of it on the booking website (Reserve America).
Aside from that, it is well kept and the bath house was pretty immaculate for such a full weekend. Several playgrounds nearby if you have kids to occupy.
The main overall issue is the lack of staffing. I'm not sure if it's the usual or if there is a lack of staff in general but we got in shortly after 7PM and there was no ranger or staff to be found to get firewood. No honor system or anything so we had to venture out to find some after we got our tent up because the main office was closed as well. As a heads up, the Dollar General does not sell wood nor does the new Lakecity Mart gas station. We found a large white house/business of some sort that had an honor system and it was $10 for a massive bundle of wood. Oh and when we left on Sunday, as of about noon, there still wasn't any staff anywhere in the park that we saw. Not sure what was up with that.
Some of the hiking trails were well marked and up kept but some others were not so if you aren't good with navigation, choose wisely. Biggest issue we had was with the Gazebo Loop Trail/Pioneer Trail. Several spots were overgrown and not marked so you had to guess a little bit until you ran back into a well worn trail.
Didn't do any lake activities but the water looked nice and there was a lot of activity on it. Nice boat ramps as well.
Overall a nice stay but choose your site wisely. I took several pictures of each site to help others in the future. I didn't get site 7 or 10 because they were occupied but they are pretty nice as well but 10 is slightly open and not as secluded.
Nice wider sites and plenty of open spaces. Location near Lexington was great for daily exploration.
Camping near Columbus, KY, offers a great mix of outdoor fun and relaxation. Whether you're in a tent or an RV, there are plenty of campgrounds to explore, each with its own unique charm.
Camping around Columbus, KY, has something for everyone, whether you're looking for a peaceful retreat or a family-friendly adventure.
Frequently Asked Questions
Which is the most popular equestrian campsite near Columbus, KY?
According to TheDyrt.com, the most popular equestrian campground near Columbus, KY is Kentucky Horse Park Campground with a 4.1-star rating from 47 reviews.
What is the best site to find equestrian camping near Columbus, KY?
TheDyrt.com has all 9 equestrian camping locations near Columbus, KY, with real photos and reviews from campers.
