There’s a lot to do and see in Kentucky’s capital city: museums, historic buildings and bourbon distilleries.
One overlooked attraction might be the Cove Spring Park and Nature Preserve, a relaxing escape to nature, right on the city’s doorstep.
Open to the public from sunrise to sunset daily, the 210-acre park and nature preserve is on US 127 — Owenton Road, a quarter mile north of the US127/421 bypass.
The nature preserve has two distinct units, a wetland on the west side of US 127, and a spring and forested area on the east side.
Owned by the City of Frankfort, Cove Spring Park and Nature Preserve offers excellent passive recreation opportunities including hiking, picnicking in a shelter, nature observation, and environmental education. The park is dog friendly, but pets must be leashed at all times.
The area is both historically and ecologically significance.
A stone retention dam, overflow tower, and walled spring were likely associated with an early gristmill.
Later, the site became the City of Frankfort waterworks. The spring, and associated crib dam and reservoir, were part of Frankfort’s first water system chartered in 1804, and believed to be the first public water supply west of Alleghenies.
Today, some of the high quality spring water, which originates as much as five miles away, is carried via a pipe to a raceway, then drops over a 25-foot waterfall (Hurst Falls).
The property was also the site of the Cove Spring Farmstead, which included a 19th century meat house.
The forest and wetlands support more than 257 species of plants, 15 mammals, 66 birds, eight amphibians, and six reptiles that have been observed in the park and nature preserve.
The wetland site is considered an alluvial forest floodplain with transition shrub swamp and sycamore, slippery elm, cottonwood, boxelder, green ash, silver maple , and buttonbush. Marsh mallow (hibiscus) arrowhead, rice cutgrass, and smartweed are common plants found here.
The woodlands are home to one federally endangered plant species, Lucy Braun’s rockcress, and two state endangered species, globe bladderpod and Svenson’s wild rye. They are growing along the clifflines and rock outcroppings above the valley.
It’s a mesophytic forest, with the drier sites dominated by chinkapin oak, sugar maple, American elm, bitternut hickory, blue and white ash, hackberry and black cherry.
In the mesic portions of the forest, which receives more moisture during the growing season, along the streams, springs and seeps, the dominant species are black walnut, northern red oak, American basswood, white ash, bitternut hickory, and Ohio Buckeye.
The lowest slopes support silver maple, boxelder, black walnut, Basswood and sycamore, with an understory of spicebush and American bladdernut.
Like most wet forests in central Kentucky, there is a rich spring wildflower display.
Don’t overlook this outdoors oasis when visiting Kentucky’s capital city. Take a lunch and enjoy the peaceful woodlands and streams.
