Laundry day first, then traveling on to Nolin Lake State Park which is on the north side of Mammoth Cave National Park. The prettiest laundry room I have ever used on the road was at Johnson Shut-Ins State Park in Missouri. The walls were lined on two sides with single-hung windows taller than I am and a row of picture windows above these facing the forest. What an inspiring view that would make me happy to do laundry every day (and the price at $1/machine was the cheapest ever)! The camp store at Mammoth Cave has a laundry room with the shower rooms that had three washers and three dryers. I was not the only one with laundry ideas, and was able to talk with two other women doing laundry as other people peeked in and left to come back later. This laundry had a nest of swallowtails outside with two busy parents feeding young ones. I also found a Waved Sphinx as I left. This is the trip for finding moths, apparently.

Kentucky Stonehenge was mentioned on a tourist map I picked up at the Visitors Center, so we stopped by to see this after finding a grocery store. They are all small stores in this area, but have the basics. The Stonehenge is an art installation at the home of the late artist, and there is a parking sign and a donations container set up. Someone was mowing the lawn but didn’t look our way or wave or anything, so we felt like we were intruding. We parked on the narrow street, then took a few pictures and made a donation—very quick stop.

Nolin Lake is at a high level. There is a camping spot right by the water with a reservation sign on the post, but I don’t think anyone will want to stay here when the picnic tables and grills are under water.

Nolin Lake has a small but nice campground with other camping places and cabin rentals nearby. It looks like the Virginia Pines and the Shortleaf Pines are under attack from the Southern Pine Beetles. I saw an insect trap hanging in the trees and many pines were cut down that used to line the road to the campground. The stumps now have large planters with ferns sitting on top. The human-planted pine forest along the beach area is showing signs of infestation.

We didn’t find a waterfall on the waterfall trail, and our young helper in the check-in booth said it wasn’t very big and easily missed. We’ll take a different trail tomorrow and keep looking.