Kentucky Driving: Horse Country, Bourbon Backroads and Eastern Mountains

Louisville is a river city with a tangle of interstates, where I-64, I-65 and I-71 meet downtown and the Gene Snyder Freeway loops around it. Lexington is smaller, calmer and ringed by New Circle Road and horse fences. Commuters in each city want different things.

In Louisville, traffic means a vehicle with modern driver aids and a comfortable seat. The Pacifica, starting at $41,595, offers 7 or 8 seats and up to 140.5 cubic feet of cargo room, and the Voyager at $41,395 trims that down to a single front-wheel drive configuration. A Durango handles Derby week and the weekend trips to Cincinnati, with standard AWD and 85.1 cubic feet of cargo with the seats folded.

Lexington's pace and its university crowd suit the Compass, at $29,990 with standard 4x4, or the Cherokee hybrid at $35,130. Basketball nights bring congestion, so allow time and parking.

Summers bring heat and humidity, and a vehicle left in a lot can get hot fast. A sunshade and a quick door-open ventilation help, and climate features are worth comparing trim by trim.

The roads through Woodford, Bourbon and Scott counties are among the prettiest in the country, lined with stone walls and black plank fences, and a good number of them are narrow with sharp turns and few shoulders. The Bourbon Trail adds out-of-state visitors in rental cars who are slow to learn the curves, so give room.

If you tow a horse trailer, the number you need to match is the combined weight of the horses, trailer and tack. A two-horse trailer with horses can approach or exceed what a mid-size SUV tows. The Ram 1500, from $42,575, rated up to 8,100 pounds with the V-6 and 8,890 with the 5.7L HEMI, covers many setups, and the Ram 2500, from $48,040, covers the heavier gooseneck trailers at up to 17,740 pounds with the 6.4L HEMI. The Durango tows up to 8,700 pounds with Tow 'n Go and fits families who want a three-row SUV that also pulls.

The Grand Cherokee works as an everyday vehicle for a farm owner who wants quiet highway manners and 4x4 on a muddy pasture lane. Distillery tours, tastings and designated drivers are the visitor's responsibility, so plan rides ahead.

East of Berea the state turns into ridges and hollows. Pikeville, Hazard, Harlan and Prestonsburg are reached by winding state routes, and the Mountain Parkway and Hal Rogers Parkway carry much of the through traffic. The roads here share a lot with West Virginia: steep grades, rock cuts, narrow bridges and sudden fog.

Grades are the issue, so engine and braking matter. The Grand Cherokee's turbo four, with 324 hp and 332 lb-ft, handles climbs smoothly, and 4x4 helps in winter when ridge roads ice up. The Wrangler, at $36,635, suits unpaved creek roads and ATV-adjacent weekend plans, with 34 inches of rated fording. The Gladiator adds a 60.3-inch bed (81.3 inches with the tailgate open) for work gear and a payload up to 1,720 pounds.

Flash flooding is a real hazard in the hollows after heavy rain. A fording rating describes still water in controlled conditions, so do not use it to justify driving through moving water or a flooded road. The Kentucky Transportation Cabinet's 511 service posts closures and conditions, and county emergency management offices post local notices.

Cell coverage thins out between towns, so a paper map or downloaded offline map is a smart backup.

Lake Cumberland in the south-central part of the state and Kentucky Lake in the west draw boaters from several states every summer. Houseboats, pontoons and ski boats all go in at marinas, many with steep, wet ramps and long, winding approaches. Summer afternoons in July and August are hot, humid and crowded.

Tow vehicles need two things: enough rated capacity and the right hitch equipment. The Ram 1500 and Durango are the common choices, with the Durango rated up to 8,700 pounds with Tow 'n Go and the Ram 1500 up to 8,890 pounds with the HEMI. The Gladiator, rated up to 7,700 pounds, suits smaller boats. Bigger loads, such as a large boat plus a camper, point to the Ram 2500.

Pay attention to payload: a full cooler, kids, bags of ice and fuel all add up. The Ram 1500 lists up to 2,340 pounds of payload on the V-6 and the Gladiator up to 1,720 pounds.

Because of the heat, check the cooling and the tire pressures before a long trailer trip. For marina rules, lake levels and ramp status, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and the Kentucky Department of Fish and Wildlife Resources are the official sources.

Northern Kentucky is part of the Cincinnati area, with Covington, Florence and the airport sitting across the Ohio River. Commuters cross the bridges into Ohio every day, and the hills mean steep side streets in the river towns. Bowling Green is a different scene, a fast-growing city on I-65 with manufacturing jobs and a Western Kentucky University campus.

For river-hill commuting, a vehicle with 4x4 or AWD handles wet, steep streets and winter ice on the bridge approaches. The Grand Cherokee and Compass both offer it, and the Cherokee hybrid adds fuel savings for a daily cross-river drive. For Bowling Green, I-65 is a long trucking and tourism corridor, so cruise comfort and highway range matter. The Grand Cherokee's 23-gallon tank and up to 26 mpg highway rating make for a comfortable run to Nashville or Louisville.

Families heading to the caves, the Corvette Museum or a weekend at Mammoth Cave will like the Pacifica's space and available AWD. Pickup buyers who work in the trades tend to settle on the Ram 1500 or the Ram 2500.

Bridge closures, construction and detours are posted by the Kentucky Transportation Cabinet and by Ohio's DOT, and they are worth checking before a commute across the river.