Yatesville Lake, Kentucky

Yatesville Lake, Kentucky, is about halfway between where I currently live and my previous stomping grounds, so I’ve dropped by a couple of times in transit. But this week was the first visit where I spent real time there.

Surprising nature highlight: Mushrooms!!! There were so many of them, often big enough to draw my eye from the water. My favorites were the Amanitas just starting to drop their veils, but there were also boletes and brittlegills and many others. Of course, mushrooms are very rain-dependent, but this is definitely a spot to visit when it’s been wet.

Plant diversity is also high. A cool find this time around was Pigeonwings (shown above with a baby katydid in the flower). This legume is one of those oddball species that grows both here and in Asia.

In general, the rocky shore creates an ecological niche that I don’t spend much time in. So I always seem to find something new-to-me at Yatesville Lake, which has included Purple False Foxglove and Virginia Meadowbeauty on other trips.

While animal sightings were relatively low, the rocky shore has a good population of Fence Lizards. I also saw a tiny mantid that might be my first sighting of the native Carolina Mantis (versus the invasive and much larger Chinese Mantis). And I heard ravens and learned Summer Tanager calls. Okay, so maybe there was more wildlife present than I’m giving the lake credit for…

The water is perfect for swimming with a sandy bottom in most places. On the downside, that means the lake is very busy. Think fishing boats starting at dawn and jet skis and motorboats roaring into life around 9 am and continuing until dark, unless…

…you paddle west into the Wildlife Management Area and go up a side cove. There, I learned it’s easy to be completely alone all day. I only barely dipped my toe into this vast wild part of the lake!

My home base this time around was a boat-in campsite. As you can see, there is a road to these campsites, but it’s only used by the park staff. If you camp midweek and peruse the reservation form to choose a site as far from other campers as possible, you can get a bit of serenity here even in the high season. Don’t expect true solitude though.

Pros: gorgeous views of the lake from the tent pads and you have your own stretch of lake to swim in and launch from. Vault toilets and water (potable?) are also available very close to each site. I grade this camping experience a C (but keep in mind my preference is dispersed camping with no people in sight).

All things considered, Yatesville Lake is worth a repeat visit…especially since my favorite camping lake and my favorite backup camping lake are both closed for two years due to dam slips. But I’m going to keep looking for that true solitude lake within an easy drive!