It’s finally time!
Splash in the Park Waterpark opens for the season on Saturday, May 23, and we can’t wait to see everyone Memorial Day weekend!
Come cool off, make a splash, and enjoy some fun in the sun at Breaks Interstate Park.
Opening weekend hours:
Saturday, May 23: 11:00 AM to 6:00 PM
Sunday, May 24: 11:00 AM to 6:00 PM
Memorial Day, Monday, May 25: 11:00 AM to 6:00 PM
A 2026 Park Pass is a great way to save this summer. For $50 per family, your pass covers your gate admission for the 2026 season and gives pass holders $2 off waterpark admission for both youth and adult swimmers each time you visit.
Park Passes are available online at breakspark.com/parkpass or in person at the Chafin Lodge front desk.
Before you head out, visit breakspark.com/waterpark for waterpark details, admission prices, full seasonal hours, and our live capacity tracker. The tracker lets you see how busy the waterpark is before you arrive, including whether we are currently at capacity.
We’ll see you at the waterpark!
Rock Dimensions Inc. will be in the park again on Saturday, June 20th! That means, it's free guided climbing time! This is geared more towards beginners, but it is open to everyone. This will involve hiking, so please bring appropriate shoes, water, and snacks.
Registration required. Use the link below to sign up!
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Happy Wildflower Wednesday! Today we have an Oxeye Daisy, and it marks a first within the series, as this is our first invasive species!
Yes that’s right, Oxeye Daisy or Leucanthemum vulgare, while visually stunning is an invasive species, in the Eastern United States. It originates from temperate Europe and Asia.
While beautiful oxeye daisies are incredibly difficult to manage. This is largely due to its unique and fragile root structure, or rhizomes, that fragment when pulled from the ground and they spread aggressively. As an invasive species they outcompete our native wildflowers and can completely take over an area that is unshaded.
Oxeye daisies are a good example of species that we bring to plant in our gardens because of their wonderful beauty, but quickly escape our confines and aggressively disturb our native ecosystems!
Happy Wildflower Wednesday, (on a Thursday because Ranger Daniel lost track of his days.)
This weeks feature is this spiny specimen called a Bristly Locust, Robinia hispida, as the common name suggests this plant is a flowering shrub in the Locust group of plants. If you are a gardener you may feel a sense of familiarity looking at the flowers. That is because this plant (and Black Locust) all belong to the Pea family, Fabaceae!
These shrubs bloom in Late April/Early May, can grow anywhere between 2-10ft tall and up to a 15ft spread! If you’re at all familiar with its more popular cousin, the Black Locust, this can be quite surprising. In the park we commonly find these plants groaning along the Canyon Rim. It’s drought tolerant, deer-resistant, and just down right stunning!
Interesting there are several accounts of the Cherokee nation using this plant for a variety of applications, its mild poison works well to alleviate toothache, its strong fibers make wonderful building material from home goods such as baskets, to more applied scenarios such
as crafting bows or blowgun darts.
If you’ve been enjoying the series drop a like and comment your favorite flower!
Alongside our Ranger-led programs, we’re welcoming special guest experts on May 23! Meet Darin and Tina with their reptiles, or watch Terry Ratliff demonstrate old-time woodworking.
While you’re enjoying opening day at the waterpark, take a break to learn about local wildlife and how families once lived in these mountains.
Ranger-led Programs, check here: /programs
Park Calendr of events, check here: /events
Welcome back to Wildflower Wednesday!
Today we have Silene virginica, or Fire Pink. It is a short lived wildflower called a spring ephemeral. Meaning they bloom for a very short time during the spring, if you’re lucky you may still be able to see a few small blooms around!
Their bright red flowers are extremely attractive to hummingbirds as pollinators. As such they are the primary pollinators of this plant.
Look out for these flowers and make sure you enjoy they as they will soon be gone for the year!
Welcome Back to another "History Breaks"
Picture is an early drawing of "Towers Rocks" which we now know as The Towers, and an excerpt from over 100 years ago, published in 1924 Kentucky State Parks A Brief Presentation of the Geology and Topography of Some Proposed State Park Areas Based Upon Original Field Investigation By
Willard Rouse Jilllson, Sc. D.
The book chapter goes in great depth about the significance of its location, cultural and geological alike, the Breaks is one of 3 "water gaps" on the Pine Mountain Range, the next closest is Cumberland Gap around 100 miles southward. Moreover, at the time of this writing the only railroad through the area was also located through the Breaks. This played a major part for increasing access to the park boundaries and set the ball in motion for the park today. Today we will leave you all with the following description which we feel still captures the essence of the park over 100 years later: "At the "Breaks" along mountain trails bordered by laurel and dogwood, one breathes with exhilaration the romantic atmosphere of the great mountains. At dawn, at noon-tide, at nightfall the forest fragrances, the silences, the vistas, the overwelling experience of freedom and the sense of the primeval-are magnificent and quite beyond description."
We want to invite you all to our May programs! Pictured below are some great moments from recent activities, Ranger Blaze leading our Animal Detectives program, and kids are having a blast exploring during Creek Critters. If either of those sparks your interest, there’s plenty more where that came from. We’ve got a full lineup of fun and engaging programs coming your way!
For a detailed look at our programs for May, check out our website. /programs
Listen closely! That’s Castor canadensis, or the American Beaver. It was once hunted near to extinction for its highly prized furs. But they’ve now rebounded in most of their ranges, which is a great thing!
Beavers get a bad rap often due to their natural behavior of damming up running water, which can cause upstream flooding which is problematic for agriculture. But beavers are also vital in stopping frequent flooding and erosion because they create wetlands as they make their dens. They are also important for forest health as they thin understory (young trees and saplings).
Here at the Breaks we are happy that a pair of beavers have moved into our aptly named “Beaver Pond”, they will raise family units in their dens, raising kits (new baby beavers) and yearlings. Be careful and remember it’s a felony to approach and feed wildlife, and beavers can easily weigh up to 65lbs+ once full grown. But come and see our beavers chomping trees, nibbling bark, and scarfing down pond salad (aquatic plants).
#beaversareawesome
A big thank you for a successful day doing a Creek Clean-up with @upike_cleanpaws with the wonderful efforts of their team we were able to remove 7 full garbage bags from some of our newly constructed trails along a beautiful creek.
Thanks to their efforts they directly contributed to protecting and increasing the natural beauty of our wonderful park! We hope to work with them, or groups as dedicated to making a difference in the near future!
