What clients say about Black Mountain in Russellville (KY)
Only read comments and the only thing that I see beautiful is some of the photos and videos. Personally I rather spend my time going somewhere else than here.
It's an adventure getting there. The Black Mountain Ridge Road is not maintained and not for cars. If you don't have a high clearance pickup or 4 wheel drive you won't make it without damaging your car. You could park at the overlook at the turn off and walk in 1.8 miles. Unless you are
Highpointer looking to check this off your list, there is not much to see when you get there.
Nice little ride in the snow. This road would be a mess after a snowmelt or heavy rainfall. The ride up wasn't bad but would be challenging in places if meeting another vehicle. We had to use an ice scraper to remove the ice from the plaque and benchmark to view them. The fire tower still stands but the first couple of flights of stairs are missing as well as the viewing platform (top). Nice place to mark off the bucket list.
Nice drive up, no view from the summit though. Road was in pretty good shape from the paved highway up to the actual summit. Kentucky Highpoint achieved, #26 for me.
Loved the drive up to Black Mountain, spiraling through the roads was a beautiful adventure. The turn off is between the signs of welcome to Virginia and welcome to Kentucky. It’s a dirt road lined by forest beauty. It gets you so close that we chose to walk that last 100 yards to reach the actual summit. The summit itself has towers which sort of take away from the natural beauty, but that’s how it goes most of the time. It’s high point #15 for us. Well done Kentucky
Rough road. There isn’t too much visibility from eye level at the top but there’s a pull off just before turning onto the service drive if you wanna stop to look at the mountains.
This state high point leaves a lot to be desired. Having been to all 48 high points in the continental US, I do not give bonus points for it merely being a state high point (if I were from KY, I might feel differently). First off, you are better off walking to the top if you do not have four-wheel drive (you can get to the first radio tower in a Sedan carefully if the road is not icy but I would not go beyond that unless you want a high car repair bill). Additionally, the views from the top are very limited. The register had disappeared a few times. There are two markers; the true summit is under the tower at the marker that says "Radar" (not where the plaque is). Best place for a view is the overlook on the Virginia side of Route 160. On the bright side, you no longer need a waiver to drive to the top as the coal company has sold the land to the State, and I understand that there are discussions to make the high point far more visitor friendly. I look forward to seeing how such plans progress and to potentially revising my review and giving a higher rating.
This use to be a beautiful untouched scenery from the Coal mining companies. It's seen better days and it's seen worse days. It's getting better, a lot of the green is coming back. Use to be nothing but bare dirt and nasty wash ponds from the strip jobs from the coal companies. I won't name any Coal companies that almost destroyed this beautiful mountain. That might be against Google rules. Who knows. If you a chance to drive it, do it during spring or fall....
Some of my family roots are in these hills. My grandfather was born at the foot of Black Mountain and went to school in Lynch. My grandmother was born in Big Stone Gap and raised in Cumberland. I drive through here every chance I get. Those saying this area is not pretty is not really looking-or need to stay in the suburbs cuz nature is not for them
It's not that impressive. If you want to add a state high point to the ones you've been, by all means go ahead, but there's no view or anything special. Just communication towers.
Such beauty. These hills have history and heritage that must never be forgotten. History and heritage that was started by hard-working good people. May their history and heritage never be forgotten.
There is a sign beside the Virginia/Kentucky state line indicating the highest point in Kentucky. We were able to drive up to the top, but the dirt road was pitiful. Not a view from the summit but still thrilled to check another high point off our bucket list.
The drive was beautiful and disgusting at the same time. You can't unsee the mining operation just across the KY/VA state border at Looney Ridge. As a matter of fact zoom out on maps and you can clearly see all of the mining operations conducted by VA JUST on the the border of KY. It's like F your view KY. However this ENERGY BLIGHT is no different than driving through Kansas into Colorado and looking at all of the wind farms. It's the same feeling.
Its neat to go there and know you are on the highest point in the state. ...there is NOT a good view there, the trail for many vehicles at times could be impassable. The fire tower cannot be utilized. It's basically just a scrubby junked up hilltop .
..that just happens to be on Kentucky's highest point. Sure hope the state at some point invests in a new tower tall enough for a view as well as some paving, parking spots etc. Even if.not theirs yet.
Beautiful scenery and paths for cars. Also paths for walking up the mountain ridge right next to the road with places for parking or just pulling over to take in the views for a few minutes
Terrible road to get there. At least the private land has not been totally restricted, but would be much better if preserved as public land. High points are a treasure. You do need to print and sign a waiver (and ideally send it off to the company that owns the land) to be on the property. It's a fairly straight forward process that makes public access feasible, hence why this place is not 1 star. Just need to repair the road, improve access, and maybe improve some sort of look out spot? No view from top.
This mountain is where the long ago coal mine wars was between the corrupt pinkerton gaurds company that worked for the coal mine owner's that went to war with the people that worked in the mines and wanted them to be union.
The book Hell in Harlan was written about the blood bath where over 200 people died on Black mountain over the fight that the national gaurd had to break up. Big Blackie as the mountain is called holds alot of past.
This is the closest mountain to Dayton, OH... Therefor, this is the greatest mountain that Earth has ever had the pleasure to erect... God bless you, Black Mountain. And God Bless Dayton, OH... the Greatest Dayton in Dayton.
I've been to over 40 state high points. This is by far the sorriest. The only view is of the radio towers and there was trash all over the place at the time I visited. Kentucky could do better by this natural attraction, but the coal trucks rumbling along the access road show why that's not likely to happen.
Drive to this place awesome.. you can spend one complete weekend if you like outdoor activities
Don't expect to have a good view from the highest point
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