Customer Reviews

Scenic Driving Kentucky

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4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

What can I say? As a Colorado resident, I'm accustomed to scenic drives, but Kentucky absolutely blew me away! With this guide in hand, I drove only a small fraction of the routes listed in this book, and I can't wait for my next opportunity to take another road trip to take more! ABSOLUTELY STUNNING scenery and, thanks to this guide, I found out about it in time to see it! Well worth the price!

This is a good starting place for searching out interesting drives, but you'll want to go online and/or purchase additional books to get any in-depth information about history or anything else in the area. Gives little more than the actual driving route.

The authors of this "scenic driving" book took the title of the publisher's series quite literally, which means they rarely venture far away from their vehicle. This is a book for people who don't want to get out of their car, who prefer to see the world through their windshield. Maybe there are people out there who are actually looking for a book like that. But I expect a book that directs me to places where I can do some investigating (by hiking or taking cave tours or etc.). This isn't that book. As another reviewer pointed out, the authors drive into a corner of Mammoth Cave and then immediately exit the park. They go nowhere near Big South Fork. They spend much of the Land Between the Lakes section talking about an inventor named Stubblefield while neglecting the true subject of the drive -- LBL. During each drive, the authors typically choose to focus on one aspect, providing decent background on that one aspect (such as the Stubblefield example), but in the process they neglect the area that they're driving through, limiting their comments to driving directions (turn left on Highway 90, drive 2.3 miles, etc.). Once again, if you don't want to be bothered with getting out of your car (or at most you only want to waddle a few yards away from your vehicle), this book might fit your expectations. If, however, you view the book as a means to lead you to some of the best sights in the state of Kentucky -- at which point you'll get out of car and spend considerable time investigating (maybe hiking for several miles) -- well, then this book won't fit your needs. Interestingly, Scenic Driving Tennessee (which I recommend) works for both these audiences, so apparently you have to be careful with the Scenic Driving series because each author defines it a little differently.

I've read several Scenic Driving books from Falcon, and this is probably the worst one. Scenic Driving the Ozarks by Don Kurz is quite good, as is Russ Manning's Scenic Driving Tennessee, but Scenic Driving Kentucky is infuriatingly bad. For example, in their description of the Mammoth Cave area, the authors don't provide any info about cave tours. They merely direct you into the park and then say "going right will take you to the visitor center and the cave tours." That's it! Then they leave the park. This is an absolute joke! Likewise, for Land Between the Lakes, the authors give horribly generic descriptions of the route, while hardly venturing away from The Trace. Author William A. Kappele is a rock hound who has written several rock hounding books, but here his description of how caves are formed (in the Mammoth Cave trip section) is full of misconceptions. He really needs to study this subject -- from real geologists, not his rock hounding buddies. This book is full of entries that contain no worthwhile information whatsoever. Co-author Cora Kappele's name is even misspelled on Page 1. Avoid this book.

Lists several scenic areas which are not well known to visit in Kentucky. PLot your route on a map before you go. Directions for back roads can be a little hard to follow. Print and size of book are easy to use while traveling. I look forward to using it often in the years ahead.