Camping for the Kentucky Derby
By jeff - Posted on April 22nd, 2008
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The 2008 Kentucky Derby is May 3, 2008. I’m planning to go there with some old college buddies. Since the Derby is 2 weekends from now hotel prices in the area are astronomical. As such we’ve decided to be a little adventurous and we will try to camp somewhere in Kentucky for nights (Friday and Saturday) around the derby area. By camp I mean tent or cabin not RV. Most of the “camp” sites I have seen thus far are for RV camping.
Look at a Google Map of the Campgrounds listed below.
A basic Google search for “camping near Louisville, kentucky” does not yield many good results. However, after perusing various local chamber of commerce and Kentucky tourism websites I found Kentucky’s Derby Region. This appears to be Kentucky Camping Gold. I have yet to look it over in detail but they have a good list of campgrounds in Kentucky’s derby region
Some highlights include:
Indiana: solid alternative
Indiana has at least 2 large parks near Louisville that may provide a better value than the other campgrounds in Kentucky proper. These Indiana campgrounds are also closer to Louisville than some of the other sites in the list above!
I also noticed that West Point is somewhat near to Louisville. West Point has at least one promising camp site within 1 hr of Churchill Downs.
http://www.westpointky.org/tourism.shtml#recreation
Salt River Recreation Area
99 Salt River Drive
West Point, KY 40177
502-922-4065
Camping: $10 per night (no hook ups)
Directions: From the north or south, U.S. 31W to Salt River Drive