Were it not for the layer of petrified fish parts under Kentucky’s sandstone skin, the state might be famous only for Colonel Sanders and Daniel Boone. But thanks to that stratum of solidified mud and calcium carbonate, Kentucky has bluegrass (fertilized by the limestone), bourbon (made with water filtered through the stone), and enormous caves (formed when underground springs eroded the limestone).

Day One: Bowling Green to Cave City (133 miles)

Route 234 to U.S. 31E, around Barren River Lake, is a sports car splurge of traffic-free bends, straights, and swooping elevation changes that give a glimpse of where America’s real prosperity lies: not on Wall Street but in neat, lovingly tended farmland, where people live the way they like among some of the greenest hills and valleys this country has to offer. Kentucky is not spectacular in the way the Southwest is, and it has neither the grandeur of the Plains nor the postcard views of the West Coast. But there is something simple and equally affecting here that makes this a place you’d want to live in, not just look at.

Follow Route 101 to Mammoth Cave, which is, well, mammoth, and definitely worth the trip: At 300-plus explored miles, this national park is the world’s longest underground labyrinth. Before leading tours of the cave (parts of which resemble a rubble-strewn mine), rangers warn acrophobes and claustrophobes that it can take hours to winch out a heart attack victim. But fear not: The subterranean spectacle brings on little else but awe.

Day Two: Cave City to Bardstown (140 miles)

Southeast of Mammoth is a small commercial cave called Crystal Onyx. More interesting than its hulking neighbor, it offers a variety of geologic oddities—crystalline draperies, rimstone dams and pools, stalactites, stalagmites, and other speleothems—in a three-level, crouch-as-you-walk space.

Near the intersection of State Route 61 and U.S. 31E east is the log cabin thought to have sheltered the birth of Abraham Lincoln. (The rude hut, which is housed in a grandiose granite building, was abandoned by Lincoln’s family when he was two, but it is a powerful symbol of a national hero all the same.) About 25 miles farther north is the Patton Museum of Cavalry & Armor, part of Fort Knox. The museum will teach you more about tanks than you might want to know, but if you’ve never seen one of these iron brutes up close, don’t miss this opportunity.

Day Three: Bardstown to Bourbon Country (145 miles)

Many countries have national liquors and most are dreadful concoctions, but American bourbon (and its first cousin, Tennessee whiskey) can be as finely crafted an elixir as any prized scotch. The Oscar Getz Museum of Whiskey History in Bardstown displays a fascinating collection of trivia and old bourbon bottles. After you’ve steeped yourself in the history of Kentucky’s whiskey, head to the distilleries to really experience the fiery brew—the tour guides at Maker’s Mark (the state’s smallest legal still, near Loretto) will even let you dip a finger into the vats. Outside the town of Versailles—VUR-sails in these parts—is the little-known but remarkable Labrot & Graham Distiller’s Company, makers of Woodford Reserve bourbon. Labrot & Graham is the only bourbon distillery that still uses old-fashioned onion-shaped copper pots; everybody else has succumbed to modern column stills. You’re well and truly in horse country now: The distillery is surrounded by stud farms, and the distinctive wood fencing of the vast, bluegrass acreage flickers by as you drive.

The back roads past Lexington to I-64 take you through more miles of horse country that, like the fine creatures bred here, can best be described as sleek. There is none of the newness of the West’s sprawling ranches, but rather a quiet affluence and expansiveness that makes even the grandest estates of the East shrink by comparison. Lucky horses, these.

Pit Stops

Bardstown

Beautiful Dreamer Bed & Breakfast (502-348-4004; geocities.com/bdreamerbb; doubles, $109–$139).

Cave City

Wayfarer B&B (270-773-3366; doubles, $85). Rose Manor B&B (270-773-4402; doubles, $90–$110).