With Spring around the corner what are some of your favorite drives in/around KY that are good for a day trip?
Scenic Drives
- Thread starter jcrow10
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The western part of Virginia around the Shenandoah is gorgeous countryside if you like green, lush, rolling hills.
WildcatfaninOhio
All-American
A couple years ago my GF and I drove a little over 100 miles on The Blue Ridge Parkway in NC and into Virginia. Gorgeous!
Souther Indiana. The best road construction and concrete you'll ever see.
Driving through Red River Gorge is always a nice drive in any season.
Clay Kiser Rd/Elizabeth Station Rd/Greenwich Pike (SR 1876) is pretty cool from US 27 to Russell Cave Rd. About 10 miles of horse farms.
For several years we made the drive from Jellico to Chattanooga. (And beyond.) Love that drive. (Except Knoxville. Nothing to do with athletic rivalry. Knoxville just has crappy traffic flow.)
One October several years ago, we were able to spend a week in coastal Maine. Don't remember what the highway designation was, but the area around Castine is unbelievable. IIRC, they have some kind of merchant marine training center there so the town isn't on tourist dollar life support. They even have (had?) some of the last remaining American elm trees.
One October several years ago, we were able to spend a week in coastal Maine. Don't remember what the highway designation was, but the area around Castine is unbelievable. IIRC, they have some kind of merchant marine training center there so the town isn't on tourist dollar life support. They even have (had?) some of the last remaining American elm trees.
Say what? You mean Chestnut? There are millions of American elm trees.
Maybe you're talking about the ones they planted in the cities. Trust me, the woods in the floodplains are loaded with American Elm.
American Elms were devastated by Dutch Elm disease in the 1950s. There aren't many actual American Elms left. Most elm trees growing here now are either hybrids or non-domestic.
What are you basing this on? Any disturbance in wet areas grows back into Ulmus Americana. There are millions of these trees. There are regions of the country where American Elm was largely wiped out but it's not in Kentucky. Not in Indiana. Not in Illinois. Not in Tennessee. Not in Missouri.
That's pretty much my world so I can't tell you outside of those regions.
https://www.nature.org/en-us/about-us/where-we-work/united-states/common-tree-species/
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I was going to suggest this drive. We have a home about 20 minutes from Mount Mitchell, just beautiful country
WildcatfaninOhio
All-American
We were in area because we had hiked on Mt Mitchell. You’re so right. It is beautiful.
Anytime I've driven through SW VA traveling over into NC has been absolutely phenomenal.
Plus, a little unrelated, but Grayson Highlands is probably the best park I've been to.
Plus, a little unrelated, but Grayson Highlands is probably the best park I've been to.
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Ulmus americana - Wikipedia
It has been estimated that only approximately 1 in 10000 American elm trees is DED-tolerant, most known survivors simply having escaped exposure to the disease. However, in some areas still not infested by DED, the American elm continues to thrive, notably in Florida, Alberta and British Columbia. There is a notable grove of old American elm trees in Manhattan's Central Park. The trees there were apparently spared because of the grove's isolation in such an intensely urban setting.
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I will add that the ones in Castine, Maine were raggedy as all get out. When we were visiting, there was a Save the Elms campaign going on. This has been several years ago now, and I don't know their fate, Tree blights hit quickly. We had to take down an ash tree in our backyard though it looked healthy enough. During the day of the cut, workers found two absolutely huge slime molds up in the branches that hadn't been visible from the ground. Funguses make short work of trees after they get going.
It's good to hear that elms are prospering somewhere although they aren't as impressive as I'd imagined.
I guess the discrepancy comes in the fact that there used to be a lot of great elms and after Dutch elm disease, they're mainly younger and not the great trees. They do fine in the Midwest and the upper south in early life. I've never seen a great impressive elm so I guess I don't know what I don't know, which is what they used to be.Ulmus americana - Wikipedia
en.wikipedia.org
It has been estimated that only approximately 1 in 10000 American elm trees is DED-tolerant, most known survivors simply having escaped exposure to the disease. However, in some areas still not infested by DED, the American elm continues to thrive, notably in Florida, Alberta and British Columbia. There is a notable grove of old American elm trees in Manhattan's Central Park. The trees there were apparently spared because of the grove's isolation in such an intensely urban setting.
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I will add that the ones in Castine, Maine were raggedy as all get out. When we were visiting, there was a Save the Elms campaign going on. This has been several years ago now, and I don't know their fate, Tree blights hit quickly. We had to take down an ash tree in our backyard though it looked healthy enough. During the day of the cut, workers found two absolutely huge slime molds up in the branches that hadn't been visible from the ground. Funguses make short work of trees after they get going.
It's good to hear that elms are prospering somewhere although they aren't as impressive as I'd imagined.
Elm trees along with ash and maple are pioneer species in floodplains.
The Natchez Trace Trail, Pacific Coast Highway and the Overseas Highway have always been fun and scenic.
Plus naturally Dutch Disease resistant strains - not hybrids - are being propagated,
I base it on what I've read and been told my entire life. There used to be a large population of elms around the creeks on my family's farm, but not a single one now. They were all gone by the 1950s per older relatives that lived there. Here's an article from Illinois extension offices that is in line with what I'm saying, and contradictory to what you are saying. https://extension.illinois.edu/blogs/garden-scoop/2021-11-12-breeding-elms-combat-dutch-elm-disease
One of my friends that has a PhD in both forestry and botany has written and lectured about our current use of Gingko trees. His claim that the lack of diversity is similar to the diversity of Elms we had and warns of a potential wipeout of urban canopy similar to the loss of the Elms. I've read his papers and listened to a couple of his lectures discussing this.
You are the only person I've ever heard say that Dutch Elm disease didn't affect Kentucky.
Despite Dutch Elm there are still tons of American Elms. They are mostly younger. They are a pioneer species.
So you're talking about saplings that will be dead within a couple of years.
Those hardly make for scenic drives, or qualify for a healthy stand of trees.
Amen. Southern and Eastern Utah are unbelievable. The Grand Staircase. We've gone there twice in the last 4 years and tried to hit all the National Parks in the state and many of the state parks. (Which would probably be National Parks if there weren't already so many.) This summer we also included Mesa Verde in Colorado and it's gorgeous, too.
It's paradoxical. When you're there and looking at it, it takes your breath away. So, you think, I've got to take pictures of this. Then, when you're back home and show the pics to people there's something missing. The pics seem just lifeless. "Here's some more tan rocks ..."
One of the parks was Canyonlands. We went to the eastern entrance and the road was washed out so we had to keep going to the southern entrance. There's this expanse of exotic rock formations that I'd never heard of. But I'm not sure that they were even in the park. Huge mesas with narrow cuts in the rock separating them from each other. I feel so stupid to not rememember the name. From the southern entrance you wind up and up into the main part of the park. Just staggering. And it's just one of dozens of beautiful drives.
There used to be so many incredible small hamburger joints on the backroads in KY. Little ice cream type stands that would give you the best burger, slaw, and fries you've ever had. Shame those have almost completely died out or no longer can put out that kind of food.
I've been to little country auction houses that would sell food better than any 5 star restaurant on earth. KY has a lot of food gems that are going fast as we age. Lots of cooking treasures being lost. There was no other state that had better small town eats than KY but it is almost all gone now.
I've been to little country auction houses that would sell food better than any 5 star restaurant on earth. KY has a lot of food gems that are going fast as we age. Lots of cooking treasures being lost. There was no other state that had better small town eats than KY but it is almost all gone now.
The entirety of UT south of I-70 should be a NP imo. Spent day at Canyonlands maybe 20 years ago. At this point not sure where you're talking nor if we saw that. Love Moab.
Underrated park to me is Capitol Reef. Also, driving the canyon of the "nearby" Burr Trail is magnificent. Practically unknown. 30/40/50 miles & maybe 25 other cars. UT-12 from I-70 to Bryce Canyon is unreal.
We still have several of those little diners in the mountains of WNC. I've been to a bunch of them
My wife and I go to the Smokeys in early December every year. From where we live, we travel east on the Cumberland Parkway until it becomes 80 at Somerset. The land is some rough country between there and London, it makes you appreciate what Daniel Boone and the pioneers had to go through to settle Kentucky. From London we take 75 south and it goes up into mountains and sometimes we are up in the clouds there. After we get into Tennessee 75 goes up on top of Pine Mountain for a good distance and the views are amazing there. I really look forward to the drive every year.
The drive in Utah I talked about above is Route 101, west out of Monticello, Utah. It goes into the Needles District of Canyonlands from the south. It winds through a national forest and then right before the national park there's a huge span of buttes of some kind. Lots of people know the dramatic landscape of Monument Valley, but these make Monument Valley look like the D League. We got a small booklet on the geology of the region that had the name of the kind of formation, but I can't find the booklet and I'm old. I couldn't tell you what I had for breakfast.
The odd things about the route is that the signage was very poor, and the road in town looks at first like just another residential street. My wife and I had a fairly spirited discussion about whether we had taken the wrong road. But inertia or wisdom prevailed and we soon realized the road was ok. (I wrote "in town" but Monticello Utah is maybe 15 streets.) Since the drive is so beautiful, it's a shame it isn't more widely known.
The odd things about the route is that the signage was very poor, and the road in town looks at first like just another residential street. My wife and I had a fairly spirited discussion about whether we had taken the wrong road. But inertia or wisdom prevailed and we soon realized the road was ok. (I wrote "in town" but Monticello Utah is maybe 15 streets.) Since the drive is so beautiful, it's a shame it isn't more widely known.
I-75 goes over Pine Mountain or do they just call it Jellico or Cumberland Mountain in Tenn? This website suggests you are correct near Pioneer, TN but no indication of what locals call it.
The stuff I've read since my post says Pine Mountain runs from Breaks, VA to Pioneer, TN or about 125 miles that I was always told was the total length. Personally, I've never been West of Breaks Interstate Park or East of Pineville but on the map, most of Pine Mountain is in KY. My question has to do with the name as it pertains to locals in Tenn I suppose. I recall diving I-75 to TN, GA or FL many times and seeing signs referring to Jellico Mountain but I don't recall seeing signs crossing Pine Mtn. except for the part near Pioneer, TN as I discovered today on the map. I totally agree with everything else about your post.
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I believe Jellico is the mountain to your left as you cross into Tennessee. A few miles in you make a long climb and you go along the crest for miles. I think Elk Valley is a little town down in a valley to your right heading south. I didn’t know it was Pine Mountain you were on until I was looking at a geographical map.
I lived in Durango, CO for 7 years. My wife's family is still there. I used to go to 4-wheeling, hiking, rock climbing, repelling, and camping in Canyonlands. Very cool otherworldly place. Need to go back soon.
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