My BEST Easter Weekend Ever❣

Land Between the Lakes National Recreation Area

Kentucky/Tennessee

With the weather being so threatening & dangerous recently, truck stops have been a convenient & safe option for us to settle into for the night. After spending the night at a truck stop on Good Friday, due to severe thunderstorms, I decided enough was enough! 🥴

The weather forecast looked decent for the weekend & I missed camping! I found a brochure for Land Between the Lakes & it was a fantastic choice! There are a series of campgrounds in LBL on the Tennessee-Kentucky border & I picked the southernmost one in Tennessee, Piney Campground. It’s a very large campground, but I was still lucky to get a nice waterfront campsite, as a walk-in with no reservation, on Easter Saturday. We had very few neighbors & at $8/night, it was a fabulous deal! By Sunday afternoon, everyone else in our loop had gone home. 😁

With ZERO reception at the campground to research anything, I’m glad that I’d grabbed a brochure about the area. Spending Easter Sunday visiting bison & elk seemed like a fun thing to do, so off we went to find them!
It was less than an hour drive, but it started to rain unexpectedly, halfway there. 😬 I almost turned around, but I took a chance that it would stop & continued on.

There’s a beautiful welcome/education center, gift shop & planetarium there & I was surprised & thrilled to find it open on Easter Sunday! After a brief visit, I continued on, still hoping the rain would stop.🤞🏼
When we arrived at the Elk & Bison Prairie, I paid the $5 entrance fee. As it turned out, it’s easily the best $5 I’ve spent in a long time!

The prairie is a large loop of paved road. Due to the potential danger of interacting with wild bison & elk, visitors are not allowed to get out of their vehicles. Good idea! 👍🏼

This is the 5-star review I posted on Google.

Upon arrival, I saw 2 elk way up ahead, crossing the road. As I drove around the loop, I didn’t see any other wildlife. I continued driving until I came upon a pick-up truck & a few cars pulled over. There was a huge herd of bison, grazing very close to the road! I pulled over to watch them & my car was soon surrounded by bison! The pick-up truck driver was a wonderful staff member (volunteer?) who eventually turned her truck around & very carefully attempted to disperse the herd. I told her I was thrilled to just sit there & watch, so she assisted the cars stuck behind me to get through. I spent the next hour plus, soaking up the magic of what I was witnessing. It was the BEST Easter present ever & I’ll never forget it! This experience was probably the best $5 I’ve ever spent. 💝

I took 300+ photos & this was one time that I wished I had a real camera with me. I’ve been thoroughly pleased with my cellphone camera photos, but this was one experience when a real camera would have been great. Here are my favorites! 💕

As we sat there, the bison started to gather around the car! It was exciting & scary, at the same time!

Maddie was interested in our massive visitors, but kept amazingly calm. At one point, she started to growl softly. I’d been looking out my window. When I turned to see why she was upset, we were surrounded by several bison on her side! She quieted right down & eventually, got bored & fell asleep. 👏 I was grateful she didn’t need to “go out” because that wasn’t going to happen anytime soon!

It started to rain again on the way back to the campground, but it cleared up by the time we got “home”. Unfortunately, another unexpected, severe thunderstorm moved in overnight & poor Maddie was freaking out. At midnight, I had to rush us into the car, with the thunder & lightning crashing all around us. 😬

On Monday morning, it was chilly, but clear & we moved on.

I hope everyone enjoyed a wonderful weekend, but I’m predicting that it wasn’t as memorable as mine❣

🦬🐰🌷🦬🐰🌷🦬🐰🌷🦬🐰🌷🦬