Less than 30 minutes from downtown Lexington lies the Boone Creek Gorge – a small, beautiful part of the Kentucky River Palisades that houses Boone Creek Outdoors, a popular destination for outdoor adventurers that offers a private fly-fishing club, zip line canopy tours and hiking tours.
Recently, the Boone Creek Outdoors team has reinstated another opportunity for guests to experience the beauty and wonder of the natural setting, with the opening of a historic rustic cabin for short-term rentals, and the reopening of a unique on-site lodge that had been closed for more than a year for renovation and repair.
Boone Creek Outdoors founder and owner Burgess Carey is an avid, lifelong outdoor enthusiast who grew up in Lexington – and at one time thought he’d need to leave the area for easy access to the outdoor recreation opportunities he loved.
“I grew up thinking there was nothing in Lexington like this,” Carey said, gesturing to the forested, creekside property where the lodge and outdoor center are housed. He acquired the property in 1994 after being introduced to the land by what he considers a happy accident. He has since been building on his dream of providing access to and education about Kentucky’s natural resources through a business he said is built on a foundation of preservation and low environmental impact.
The Boone Creek Palisades, a subsection of the Kentucky River Palisades, offer a pristine glimpse at at unique natural rock formations, water features, plants and wildlife. Photo furnished
Both the land, which once belonged to Daniel Boone, and the lodge, originally constructed in the late 1980s, are steeped in a storied and fascinating past – in fact, the lodge is rumored to have possible ties to one of Lexington’s most notorious crime sagas, as detailed in Sally Denton’s 1989 book “The Bluegrass Conspiracy.”
In the early 1990s, a friend of Carey’s was in the process of purchasing an adjacent property and invited Carey to hike with him in search of a waterfall he’d heard existed in the area. Carey, who had been living in out west and had returned to Lexington for what he thought to be a temporary basis, jumped at the chance. During the hike, he found himself completely captivated and taken aback by the natural beauty of the gorge, which he hadn’t previously realized existed. The two found the waterfall, which is now a highlight of a two-mile hiking tour offered at Boone Creek Outdoors – but that wasn’t all they found.
“We were working our way up the creek and literally looked to our right and saw this house,” Carey said, referring to a modern wooden house, tucked away in a creekside plot surrounded by steep wooded hills.
“We thought, ‘how in the world did that get here?’”
Nearly hidden from view, the lodge, which had been abandoned for nine years at the time, had been nearly untouched by vandalism but had suffered significant water damage.
“It was so waterlogged that you could have pushed it over,” Carey said.
Thoroughly enchanted with the property, which had a strong aura of abandonment, Carey took to the task of hunting down the landowner so he could express his interest in purchasing it. After chatting with some folks who were living in a rundown building near the road on the property (formerly a truck stop and diner called the Jolly Roger), he soon realized they were actually squatters who were inhabiting the property illegally. Finally, he reached the landowner, Sam Whitehead, who was living in Florida.
As Carey found out, Whitehead had acquired the property at auction in the early 1980s, following a diesel leak at the Jolly Roger that left the land tarnished by hazardous waste. Whitehead drew up the plans for the lodge, built it in 1981 and lived there from 1982 to 1983 before abandoning the property to nature.
Eventually, Carey was able to work out a deal with Whitehead that let him acquire the property, taking ownership in 1994 when he was in his mid-20s. In those early years of owning the property, Carey, who was in the construction industry, did some minimal repairs and restoration to the lodge, while focusing most of his energy on cleaning up the land and figuring out the best way to bring out the potential of its natural features.
In 2000, he launched the Boone Creek Angler’s Club, a members-only fly-fishing club that allows members exclusive access to Boone Creek and its impressive stock of brown and rainbow trout. Boone Creek Outdoors’ zip line and canopy tour and a two-mile guided hiking tour officially opened for business in 2017, after more than five years of highly publicized controversy, disputes with neighbors, lawsuits, zoning changes and an eventual compromise that allowed for a scaled-down version of Carey’s originally proposed outdoor adventure center, which was inspired in part by North Carolina’s Nantahala Outdoor Center.
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The canopy tour features multiple suspension bridges, a spiral staircase and “floating” staircase, and a place where visitors can rappel. Photo furnished
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The canopy tour features multiple suspension bridges, a spiral staircase and “floating” staircase, and a place where visitors can rappel. Photo furnished
The full zip line canopy tour includes six lines – the longest stretching 300 feet above the ground – as well as multiple suspension bridges, a spiral staircase and “floating” staircase, and a place where visitors can rappel. (An abbreviated tour that leaves out many of those elements is also available.) Platforms are built into the trees rather than into manmade structures on the ground to minimize the permanent environmental impact.
“All those elements are designed...to allow you to slow down and to really notice what’s around you,” said Carey, who is also affiliated with Canopy Crew, a popular company that has built a handful of unique short-term rental options up in the trees of the Red River Gorge.
While Carey said there are definitely thrills involved with going on a zip line canopy tour, he emphasizes that all of the experiences offered at the business are centered on multi-dimensional exposure to the history and geology of the area, including education about its ecology and invasive species that threaten it.
“We want our guides to be fully trained in an interpretive outline so that they can teach as well as entertain,” he said.
Click here to rad more information on the Angler’s Lodge and cabin rental.
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In addition to the thrills of soaring through the air, Boone Creek Outdoors’ zip line canopy tour offers multi-dimensional education about the history and geology of the area. Photo furnished
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The Angler's Lodge, a 4,500 square foot lodge on the property that is accessible only via 4-wheel drive, is available for short-term rentals. Rentals include a temporary membership to the Boone Creek Angler's Club. Photo furnished.