Top 10 Outdoor Activities
The forests, lakes, and wildlife of Land Between the Lakes in Kentucky & Tennessee offer hiking, fishing, camping, and many more outdoor activities.
Category Hiking
While traveling on the road, hiking trails are our gym. We love to get out in the middle of nowhere for impressive vistas and flirtations with wildlife.
Read MoreTop 10 Outdoor Activities
Piney Campground
Piney Campground is a great place to camp if you are looking for a quiet place to relax or an adventure getawa. This campground is located on the shores of Kentucky Lake in Land Between the Lakes National Recreation Area and provides visitors with plenty of opportunities to enjoy the great outdoors. There are plenty of campsites available, as well as a variety of recreational activities that include swimming, fishing, kayaking, hiking, biking, and bird watching.
Elephant Butte Lake State Park
New Mexico is a colorful and dramatic state of deserts and mountains. Water is a precious commodity. Which lead to the authorization of the Rio Grande Project back in 1905. This program to provide power and irrigation to New Mexico and Texas led to the erection of several dams along the Rio Grande, including the Elephant Butte Dam just north of Truth or Consequences. The resulting Elephant Butte Reservoir, however, is more than just a holding tank for farmer's fields. It has become a recreation hotspot as Elephant Butte Lake State Park.
Historic Railroad Tunnel Trail
There's no shortage of activities to enjoy along the shores of Lake Mead. The expansive reservoir is flanked by mountains for hiking, surrounded by beaches for exploring, and filled with water for boating. But we feel like biking. And after a visit to the Lake Mead Recreation Area's Visitor Center, we have a recommendation: the Historic Railroad Tunnel Trail.
Big Dune Recreational Area
Wander towering sand dunes in Nevada's western Desert between Las Vegas and Death Valley National Park in Big Dune Recreational Area.
Salt Creek Interpretive Trail
In a notoriously hot and dry environment such as Death Valley National Park, Salt Creak's presence on the desert floor is a surprise. The creek is fed by brackish springs over a mile upstream, resulting in a marshy habitat and home to the rare Salt Creek Pupfish. The creek may be too salty for us to drink and can be saltier than the ocean, yet it still supports a thriving ecosystem.
Zabriskie Point
There's no shortage of dramatic rock formations in Death Valley National Park. But one that is (arguably) the most iconic is Zabriskie Point. This striking struckure rises out of ancient badlands older than Death Valley itself. It was formed by erosion of sediment left by Furnace Creek Lake when it dried up 5 million years ago, long before Lake Manly and Death Valley as we know it. Today, it is the gem of the Ameragosa Range, the eastern mountain range flanking Death Valley National Park
Dante’s View
So many of the iconic stops in Death Valley are on the valley's floor. Badwater, the Sailing Stones, and the Devils Golf Course are all fairly low elevation. For many, the opportunity to see the park from above is most common while driving CA-190 over the Panamint Range and into the Badwater Basin. While the drive includes many stunning vistas, they are hard to compare to the colorful marbleized salt flats of the Death Valley floor and Badwater Basin as seen from Dante's View.
Montaña de Oro State Park
The California Coastline is awash in scenic draws. We could spend years exploring the state's coastal forests and delicate tidepools and constantly find new, remarkable places. That said, there is one park that regularly draws in, whenever we are in the area. Montaña de Oro State Park is located in Los Osos, south of Morro Bay and north of Pismo Beach and offers the full California coast experience: rugged rocky cliffs, sandy beaches, and thriving local wildlife.
Dark Hollow Falls
Shenandoah National Park highlights expansive vistas of the Virginia countryside from its Skyline Drive. But one doesn't have to wander far to be immersed in natural gullies experience a more intimate side of the park. Leave the vast overlooks behind and get up close and personal with the Dark Hollow Falls Trail.