# Bourbon, Bluegrass & Shakers *US 68 and the old Kentucky pikes* Bourbon, Bluegrass & Shakers is a ~180-mile back-roads route from Lexington to Mammoth Cave on US 68, US 150 and KY 52, driven in 2–3 days, that stays off I-64 / I-65 through the Upper South. - **Drive:** Lexington → Mammoth Cave - **Distance:** ~180 mi - **Days:** 2–3 - **Highways:** US 68, US 150, KY 52 - **Avoids:** I-64 / I-65 - **Region:** Upper South - **Themes:** Eats & Institutions, History & Markers, Natural Beauty, Oddities & Roadside Wonders Kentucky compressed: stone-fenced horse farms, the ghost-quiet perfection of Shaker Village, the state's bloodiest battlefield, bourbon's hometown (Jesse James bullet holes included), Thomas Merton's silent monastery, Lincoln's symbolic log cabin in a marble temple — and the longest cave on Earth, with a concrete teepee motel to sleep it off. The Upper South's northern edge, at barrel-aging speed. Markers: Kentucky historical markers plus the bourbon-trail passport stamps, if you keep such scorecards. ## The drive, segment by segment ### Bluegrass to Perryville *Lexington → Perryville · ~45 mi* Keeneland's stone fences, the Kentucky River palisades, Shaker Village's utopian quiet, fried chicken in the state's oldest town — then Perryville's astonishingly unchanged battlefield. Stops: - **Keeneland & Horse Country** (Lexington) · Natural Beauty — Dry-stone fences (much of it built by Irish masons and enslaved workers — the fences have history too) and dawn workouts open to anyone with coffee. April and October meets are Kentucky in full dress. - **Shaker Village of Pleasant Hill** (Harrodsburg) · History & Markers — Thirty-four original buildings from the celibate utopians whose craftsmanship outlived them (celibacy will do that), on 3,000 acres of trails running down to the Kentucky River. Sleep in the dormitories, order the Trustees' Table fried chicken and the Shaker lemon pie (it will make you forget meringue), hear the spirituals. The quietest place in this entire atlas — and, one reader reports, possibly the last place in America where people still say 'you're welcome.' - **Beaumont Inn** (Harrodsburg) · Eats & Institutions — Yellow-legged fried chicken and Henry Bain sauce at a Beard 'America's Classic' — an 1845 Greek Revival girls' college that is 19th-century American architecture in prime condition, inside and out — in Kentucky's oldest permanent settlement (1774), run by the same family five generations. - **Blackbird Cafe** (Harrodsburg) · Eats & Institutions — Bakery-café in the 1865 Dedman's Drugstore on Main Street — sandwiches, soups and a pastry case, and the Pig Mac, which one reader drove home still talking about. Closed Mondays and Tuesdays. - **Perryville Battlefield** (Perryville) · Civil War — October 8, 1862: Kentucky's great battle, fought in a drought over water, on rolling land so unchanged the markers barely need maps. The Confederacy never seriously threatened Kentucky again. ### Holy Spirits *Perryville → Hodgenville · ~80 mi* Bardstown (Bourbon Capital of the World), Maker's Mark's dipping room, the Trappist silence of Gethsemani, and Lincoln's birthplace temple — distilled and contemplative in equal measure. Stops: - **Bardstown** (Bardstown) · Eats & Institutions — Bourbon Capital of the World: Old Talbott Tavern (1779) keeps its Jesse James bullet holes upstairs; My Old Kentucky Home keeps Stephen Foster's complicated anthem; the Oscar Getz whiskey museum keeps everything else. - **Bardstown Museum Row** (Bardstown) · Civil War — One ticket, four museums and dozens of historic structures on East Broadway: the National Civil War Battles of the Western Theater Museum (Kentucky, Tennessee and Mississippi's war, with a grade-A artifact collection), the only museum in America devoted to the war's women, a street of relocated pioneer log buildings — plus a used bookstore that is a detour in itself. A reader reports the ticket is good for two days; you'll want both. - **Maker's Mark** (Loretto) · Eats & Institutions — The prettiest distillery in the state, on a creek in the knobs: dip your own red-wax bottle, find the Chihuly glass ceiling in the aging cellar. Star Hill Farm is worth the winding miles. - **Abbey of Gethsemani** (Trappist) · History & Markers — Thomas Merton's Trappist monastery (he's buried under a plain white cross). Visitors welcome to the silence; the gift shop's bourbon fudge and fruitcake fund the contemplation. ### Cave Country *Hodgenville → Mammoth Cave · ~55 mi* Down the old Louisville–Nashville turnpike corridor to the longest cave system on Earth — and the roadside-teepee motel that peak America built in 1937. Stops: - **Lincoln Birthplace** (Hodgenville) · History & Markers — Fifty-six granite steps — one per year of his life — climb to a neoclassical temple sheltering a symbolic log cabin. The juxtaposition IS the exhibit. Knob Creek, his boyhood farm, is ten minutes on. - **Mammoth Cave** (Mammoth Cave) · Natural Beauty — The longest known cave on Earth — 400+ mapped miles and counting. Its first great mapmaker was Stephen Bishop, an enslaved guide who named half the underworld. Book the Historic or Domes & Dripstones tour. - **Wigwam Village #2** (Cave City) · Oddities & Roadside Wonders — Sleep in a 1937 concrete teepee arranged around a grass court — one of three surviving Wigwam Villages in America, lovingly revived. The roadside-motel apex. ## Tips and best time to go - Distillery tours require sober drivers — sequence Shaker Village between tastings, or book a tour van. - Keeneland mornings (free) beat afternoons; the track kitchen serves trackers' breakfast. - Mammoth Cave tours sell out summer weekends; reserve online. ## Worth a detour - **Old Friends Farm** — Georgetown: retired Derby winners mug for carrots — racing's pensioners in clover. - **Penn's Store** — Gravel-road general store run by one family since 1850 — home of the Great Outhouse Blowout, which is real. - **Red River Gorge** — East of Lexington: sandstone arches and the Nada Tunnel's one-lane dare. - **Kelly Q's & Whipper's Dairy** — Walton, an hour north of Lexington up I-75 — the way home for half the Ohio Valley: pulled pork a reader calls some of the best ever, soft-serve from the dairy-bar side, and proper country music on the speakers while you eat. ## Frequently asked questions ### How long is Bourbon, Bluegrass & Shakers and how many days does it take? Bourbon, Bluegrass & Shakers is about 180 miles and takes 2–3 days at a back-roads pace. ### Where does Bourbon, Bluegrass & Shakers start and end? It runs from Lexington to Mammoth Cave. ### Which highways does Bourbon, Bluegrass & Shakers follow? It follows US 68, US 150 and KY 52. ### Which interstate does Bourbon, Bluegrass & Shakers replace? It avoids I-64 / I-65, using US 68, US 150 and KY 52 instead. ### How many stops are on Bourbon, Bluegrass & Shakers, and what are the highlights? 12 stops are mapped, including Keeneland & Horse Country, Shaker Village of Pleasant Hill, Beaumont Inn, Blackbird Cafe and Perryville Battlefield. ### Which ready-made itineraries include Bourbon, Bluegrass & Shakers? The Long Way to the Opry (21 days), Bourbon, Bluegrass & Shakers (3 days) and A Reader's Central Kentucky: Bardstown to Shaker Village (3 days). ### When is the best time to drive Bourbon, Bluegrass & Shakers? The atlas’s seasonal note for this route: “Mammoth Cave tours sell out summer weekends; reserve online.” ## Ready-made itineraries using this route - [The Long Way to the Opry](https://dixieroadtrip.com/trips/music-epic) — 21 days, ~3000 mi - [Bourbon, Bluegrass & Shakers](https://dixieroadtrip.com/trips/bourbon-weekend) — 3 days, ~300 mi - [A Reader's Central Kentucky: Bardstown to Shaker Village](https://dixieroadtrip.com/trips/reader-central-kentucky) — 3 days, ~160 mi ## Connects with - [The Wilderness Road](https://dixieroadtrip.com/routes/wilderness-road) — Bristol → Berea - [Moonbows & the Gorge](https://dixieroadtrip.com/routes/moonbows-gorge) — Slade → Cumberland Falls - [US 127: The Plateau & the Sale](https://dixieroadtrip.com/routes/us127-plateau) — Chattanooga → Albany, KY --- Canonical URL: https://dixieroadtrip.com/routes/bourbon-68 Publisher: Dixie Media (Dixie Road Trip, https://dixieroadtrip.com/) Last updated: 2026-10-05