Traveling Huntleys

Inspiring travel stories, tips, and guides from a couple exploring the world one destination at a time.

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Louisville, Kentucky: Bourbon Distilleries, Cave Hill and a City I Used to Live In

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Last Updated: August 6, 2026

Louisville sits on the Ohio River and is the largest city in Kentucky. It was founded in 1778 by George Rogers Clark and named after King Louis XVI of France, in thanks for French support during the Revolution. It exists because of the Falls of the Ohio — a two-mile run of rapids that was the only major obstruction on the whole river between Pittsburgh and the Gulf of Mexico. Everything going downstream had to stop and portage, and a settlement grew up around the interruption. That is Louisville.

Kentucky offers something for everyone: outdoor recreation, caves, lakes, state parks and the Appalachian Mountains, plus a heritage built on horses, bourbon and moonshine. For me it is also personal. I did my anesthesiology residency in Louisville and stayed on for a year as an associate professor of anesthesiology at the University of Louisville, teaching mostly cardiothoracic anesthesia and pain medicine. I miss the place and the people I met there. In the end the weather is what moved me to San Diego — but Louisville will always have a piece of me.

Cherry Blossoms, Kentucky
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Land Between the Lakes, Kentucky: Bison, 270 Cemeteries and the Town That Was Erased

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Last Updated: August 3, 2026

Land Between the Lakes is a National Recreation Area in western Kentucky and Tennessee. The area is formed by Kentucky Lake and Lake Barkley, which run parallel to each other for more than 50 miles. Lake Barkley, 58,000 acres, was formed by Barkley Dam impounding the Cumberland River, completed in 1966 by the Army Corps of Engineers. Kentucky Lake, 160,000 acres, was formed by Kentucky Dam impounding the Tennessee River in 1944, a TVA project and still the largest artificial lake by surface area in the eastern United States. At Grand Rivers the two come within about a mile of each other and are joined by a canal, which means a boat can pass from one river system to the other. The 170,000 acres left standing between them make up the largest inland peninsula in the country. It is very popular for water sports, hunting, fishing, mountain biking and hiking. From Cave City, Kentucky it was about a two-and-a-half hour drive.

Sunset over Lake Barkley, Kentucky
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Mammoth Cave & Cumberland Falls, Kentucky: The World’s Longest Cave and the Only Moonbow in the Hemisphere

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Last Updated: August 3, 2026

Kentucky gave us two stops that have almost nothing in common except that both are underrated. Cumberland Falls throws a moonbow — a lunar rainbow — on clear nights around the full moon, and it is one of only two places on earth where that happens on a predictable schedule. Mammoth Cave is the longest cave system in the world by a very wide margin, and it is still getting longer every year as surveyors push further into it. Between the two of them we found the original Kentucky Fried Chicken and a Stonehenge in somebody’s front yard. From Pigeon Forge it was a straightforward run north.

Inside Mammoth Cave National Park on a walking path with a flat ceiling, Kentucky
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Pigeon Forge & the Great Smoky Mountains, Tennessee: Waterfalls, Mingus Mill and Snow in April

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Last Updated: August 3, 2026

Pigeon Forge is a year-round tourist town in the western foothills of the Smoky Mountains — shows, shopping, bars, restaurants, go-karts, hiking, watersports, and the mountains themselves. There are simply too many things to see and do in a week. It is also the front door to the most visited national park in the United States, which is the reason we came, and the strip out front turns out to be a genuinely useful thing to have when the weather in the park goes sideways.

Great Smoky Mountains National Park with low clouds, Tennessee
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Edisto Beach & Lake Greenwood, South Carolina: Shelling, Dark Skies and a 4,000-Year-Old Shell Mound

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Last Updated: August 3, 2026

Edisto Beach sits about an hour south of Charleston at the end of Highway 174, a two-lane road that simply runs out of island and stops at the Atlantic. That dead end is the whole reason the place is still quiet. Fewer than a thousand people live in the town year-round, there is no high-rise and no boardwalk, and the main attraction is a beach so thick with shells you can hear them clatter in the wash. Low tourism, low industry, and miles of sand to walk was exactly what we were after. From Hanna Park in Jacksonville it was a four-hour drive north.

Sandy Huntley walking looking at sea shells on Edisto Beach, South Carolina
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Torrey Pines State Natural Reserve

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We had driven past the turnoff for Torrey Pines State Natural Reserve more times than we could count during our California coast travels, always telling ourselves we would stop on the next trip. Finally, on a warm July morning, Sandy and I turned off the 101 and hiked it properly — and it immediately reminded us of why it ranked among our favorite spots in all of San Diego County.

Torrey Pines State Natural Reserve with views of sandstone cliffs and the Pacific Ocean
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