Taylorsville Lake State Park is a 1,200-acre outdoor recreation and wildlife park located in Mount Eden, Kentucky.

Situated midway between Lexington and Louisville, this state park extends into parts of Anderson and Nelson counties.

It really is just a beautiful setting right here in the heart of Kentucky that offers unique outdoor recreation opportunities for all ages and abilities.

We had a chance to explore the park recently.

Let's take a look.

[music playing] What started as a 60-acre land grant back in 1799 from Richard Taylor, an early pioneer landowner and grist mill operator, Taylorsville, Kentucky, in Spencer County, is now home to one of the premier outdoor recreation areas in the entire region.

We're in a cool spot because if you look at Lexington and Louisville, we kind of sit in the middle of that.

The Army Corps of Engineers essentially dammed up a river and created Taylorsville Lake.

The state leased the park land from that starting in the early 80s, 1982, I believe it was.

And that's when it became the park.

And over the years we've developed, you know, the trail systems, campground, and all the different lake access points since that time.

So, the lake itself is about 3,000 acres.

The state park land is about 1,300 acres.

And, you know, other fun numbers, trail system, 24, 26 miles of trails throughout here.

We have four different boat ramps, so four different places you can access the lake, and 77 campsites for you to park an RV or a tent and hang out there too.

[music playing] Well, Kentucky, it's a horse state, and it always will be.

And we wanna make sure that we maintain that heritage.

The horse audience equine world is huge for what we do.

Folks are coming in from other states.

We have a lot of horse events here, but they're riding our trail system.

We have a unique opportunity here for horse camping.

So, you can bring an RV or trailer, a camper, and you can hang out with your horse right there, and they stay with you over the weekend as well.

The trail system is a big one for anybody that has a horse to come out here and ride it to the camping and then events as well.

We're hosting events here this weekend for orienteering that are bringing people from all over the country right here to Taylorsville Lake.

[music playing] [music playing] Fishermen are a big audience here.

A lot of folks fishing on the lake.

Kentucky Fish and Wildlife does an amazing job stocking this lake and mapping out where to go and make it pretty dummy proof.

So, the pros love it, but those of us that are pros, we love it too.

And then our trail system is just a unique opportunity to get out and walk a lot of miles, ride on the horse a lot of miles, or get on a mountain bike and hit some miles on the mountain bike.

I think a park manager is different at every park because every park is different.

At Taylorsville Lake, I think it's probably the widest breadth of job description in that we pick up the slack of any specialists that we have on our team.

It all just depends.

It's a lot of coordinating events, a lot of customer service, and a lot of just making sure we're keeping our eye on this place and having a high standard for what it looks like.

When you think about those numbers of thousands of acres of land and lake, there are four of us full-time that are on the parks team, and then one additional ranger, and that ranger is law enforcement.

I'm a huge team player.

I believe in team concept.

I do jobs here in the park that aren't part of my job description, but I love being a part of the team, and so I help out with a lot of other stuff.

Typically, you know, during the summer, our main role is our boat ramps, doing compliance checks, make sure people are operating their vessels in a safe manner.

As far as the campground goes, make sure everybody's in compliance with our park rules and regulations.

Just make sure everybody's having fun but making sure everybody's safe.

If you've never been here, I would say take in a little bit of everything.

Take in a little bit of it all.

Go down to the lake and just sit for a bit.

Hit a trail up, and just enjoy that for a while.

Go remove yourself.

Sit by the day-use horse area.

Take in the sights of just Kentucky.

People unloading and loading horses.

It's a blast.

So, take little snippets of all over the park.

I say it a lot.

I think it's a hidden gem, and I always thought, "Wow, this is close, and it's vast."

And I think if you're looking to get away, this is gonna feel like a getaway without putting in a weekend or a whole week.

It'll feel like a getaway if you come out for the afternoon, and that's a special feeling here at this park.

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