Big South Fork National River and Recreation Area - Park in Oneida - 4564 Leatherwood Rd, USA

A Hidden Gem, We decided to do a spur of the moment hiking trip and ended up at the Big South Fork and found an awesome area. We really enjoyed the hike . The nature and serenity of this area was well worth the drive. We will be back and I highly recommend visiting if you love nature.

This National Park was waaaay bigger than I first thought. We started in Tennessee and decided to go up to Kentucky to Yahoo Falls. There were A LOT of "dirt" backroads as this is a very accommodating equestrian park. Most campgrounds had horse facilities and tons of trails for horseback riding....made me wish I owned a horse. What I didn't care for was the lack of signage describing the hiking trails. We are in our mid fifties and had our dogs with us. NONE of the trail heads described what you would be encountering. (Straight up and down flights of stairs.) We have hiked many state and national park trails that give you an indication of what's to come. Dogs and small children are NOT compatible with The Arches trail nor the Yahoo Falls trail. We had driven so much at that point, we gave up any more trails. We DID see a momma black bear standing in the road to the Arches and two cubs in a nearby tree. That was really cool. Glad we were in the truck and not hiking as we didn't have any bear spray.

First time here. Great hikes. Fall colors are beautiful. I'll be coming back for more.

We were there in the spring, April 2023. We stayed at bandy Creek but then also moved up to the North end of The Park at Blue heron. Both camping sites were really beautiful and fun. There were many more trails directly off bandy Creek campground but Blue heron had prettier hiking with Yahoo falls, the mining community, and blue heron loop which was a 6.4 mi loop. Bandy Creek did have leatherwood Ford which was beautiful hiking as well. Highly recommended for camping and hiking which is all we do.

Beautiful park. We visited Blue Heron Mining camp, Leatherwood Ford, Devil's Jump Overlook, and Split Bow Arch. Lots of gorgeous scenery and so much more to do. National Park passport stamps are available at the bookstore at Blue Heron and at the visitor center at Bandy Creek, maybe also at a Sterna ranger location, but stamp was also available at Blue Heron.

When I joined Boy Scouts, this was the location of the first trip that I went on, so it holds a lot of sentimental value for me. It had great campsites near the entrance to the trail at the end of the rails station for all of the trains, There was an awesome museum that went over all of the coal mining procedures. the campsites along the trail are great, especially the ones along the river, I have many great memories from playing games with all of my friends in those campsites and can't wait for the opportunity to go back and have another adventure at blue heron.

We really enjoyed the hike to the Twin Arches. It was a moderately difficult hike due to the steep stairs, but if you take your time, it is very doable and well worth the energy.

As someone who lived in Hawaii for three years and dealt with crowds of people, this park is what Hawaii would be without the tourists flooding every book and cranny. The 10 mile out and back to Angels overlook is jaw dropping and i didn't run into one person that morning. Creeks, water crossings, foreboding rock formations, fairy magic everywhere; this is a must hike park!