Yatesville Lake
RV Guide
Introduction
Head to Yatesville Lake near Louisa in your rig for some camping, and you'll find two-thousand plus acres of lake meandering through the Kentucky countryside. Yatesville Lake came into being in the late 1980s when the US Army Corps of Engineers built a dam across Blaine Creek. By doing that, they created one of the most scenic and unique reservoirs in Kentucky for boating and recreational activities. The lake's irregular, serpentine shoreline stretches for almost one hundred miles around the perimeter of the Yatesville Lake State Park with extensive branch-offs running to the west and south of Lawrence County.
With its tree-lined shores, numerous tributary creeks and many secluded coves, Yatesville Lake is an exciting place to explore by boat. Whether you have a kayak, canoe or motorized craft, you'll find fantastic fishing spots and adventure around every bend you take on the waterway. For landlubbers, there are twenty miles of multi-use trails, an eighteen-hole golf course and some interesting historical sites and museums to investigate. There's only one campground at the lake which has limited campsites, so if you're thinking of heading to Yatesville Lake for some RV camping, book your pitch well in advance, or you could be disappointed.
RV Rentals in Yatesville Lake
Transportation
Driving
Whichever direction in Kentucky you're coming from to get to Yatesville Lake, you'll need to find your way onto the US 23. If you've been over in the west of the state camping out in your RV at the Daniel Boone National Forest, you'll have a winding drive along some country byways and through small towns. If you find the motoring tiring, take a break in Fallsburg to see the waterfall there before continuing on to the lake.
Whether you're driving along the US 23 from either the north or south, once you're at Louisa, you'll be in for a twisting drive along the KS 3 and the KS 1185. Tricky in a big rig, but your patience will be rewarded when three miles further on you arrive at the dam and Yatesville Lake marina. If you're not stopping to launch your boat, visit the information center or view the dam, but heading for the campground, you'll have another twenty-minute run along the KS 32 and the KS 3215 before you're at your pitch and pulling on the parking brake.
Parking
Public Transportation
Campgrounds and parking in Yatesville Lake
Campsites in Yatesville Lake
Reservations camping
Pleasant Ridge
The Pleasant Ridge Campground at Yatesville Lake is located within the boundaries of the Yatesville Lake State Park. The semi-primitive campground has just under fifty campsites along the lakeside. There are twenty-seven campsites with utility hook-up facilities and twenty without. If you're RVing with friends or family and they have their own rig, the campground has one pitch for two RVs to park side by side.
The Pleasant Ridge Campground has decent communal amenities including showers, flush toilets, dump stations, and a laundry. When the youngsters get bored of climbing the trees, there's a playground on the grounds for them to clamber around in and get rid of any leftover excess energy they might have. There's a boat ramp and access to multiple trails from the campground.
Seasonal activities in Yatesville Lake
In-Season
Boating
Yatesville Lake is one of the best places in Kentucky for boating activities. There's a boat ramp in the campground, a marina with launch facilities and multiple other sites around the lake shores where you can float your craft.
If you don't have a boat, but still want to spend the day messing about on the water, you can hire a pontoon boat from the marina. The creeks and other tributaries of the lake are ideal for canoe and kayaking enthusiasts as well as jet-skiers.
Hiking & Walking
If you're up in the marina area of Yatesville Lake and want to stretch your legs, you can join the two and a half-mile long Mary Ingles Trail from there. The network of six different, inter-looping tracks includes three which are graded moderate and are quite rugged going, two easier ones cutting through the woods and an accessible, interpretive nature trail. Also accessible from the campground at Yatesville Lake is a twenty-mile-long multi-use trail for hiking, horse riding and mountain biking.
Lawrence County SeptemberFest
If you're RV camping at Yatesville Lake in early September, you won't want to forego taking a visit into Louisa to go to the Lawrence County SeptemberFest. The annually held, two-day event takes place on the streets of Louisa and there's parades, pageantry, live entertainment, a car show and plenty of food stalls. It goes on from early in the morning until late into the evening on the weekend after Labour Day. Write it in your diary. It's an event you won't want to miss.
Off-Season
US 23 Country Music Highway Museum
All fans of country music camping in their RVs at Yatesville Lake will want to make the trip to the US 23 Country Music Highway Museum. Dedicated to all the great country music artists who originate from along the route of the US 23, the museum contains exhibitions and artifacts pertinent to such legendary stars as Loretta Lynn, Billy Ray Cyrus, Crystal Gayle, and The Judds. If you're feeling romantic and want to line dance at your wedding, you can even get married in the museum.
Golf
Get in a round or two of golf while you're pitched at the campground at Yatesville Lake. By the shores of the lake are the eighteen holes of the Eagle Ridge Golf Course, reputedly one of the most challenging in Kentucky. Play the nine rounds up followed by the nine down and you'll have been over several steep hills and tested your putting skills to the limit on the sloping greens. If you forgot to pack your clubs, but want to play, you can hire a set from the on-site pro shop.
Project Information Center
Stop by the Project Information Center at Yatesville Dam and you'll see several fascinating exhibitions. There are displays on wicket dams which were constructed by the COE in the late nineteenth century along the Ohio River. A wooden farmstead home, Adam's Cabin, preserved before the area was flooded by the reservoir waters and also vintage mining equipment used along Blair Creek for drilling oil.
