Fall Colors Roadtrip to Kentucky

In October the four of us loaded up the jeep on Friday after work and headed to Kentucky for a fall colors weekend roadtrip.  I have been wanting to do a fall colors trip and to visit Kentucky for a long time so was very excited for our little getaway. 

Staying true to our travel MO, we tried to cram as much into our short trip as possible.  We toured a distillery, drove down country roads in horse country, did a huge hike, had a really nice dinner out, visited a bourbon & wine tasting store, went to a really old candy store, walked in the Louisville Central Park and strolled around downtown all in about 36 hours before our drive home.

We did end up doing some spontaneous additions to the itinerary and switched things up a bit.  The distillery tour wasn't planned... I had thought we would save that for a trip where we would visit a few of them but Dan was increasingly excited about the idea with each sign we passed.  

After a morning walk around the East Market Street area in Kentucky, we headed east in search of country roads in horse country and a hike in Red River Gorge.  But first we did a quick stop at The Woodford Reserve Distillery.  It was beautiful.

We walked over the production buildings, which were gorgeous, and pretended to be part of a tour group for a while to check it out.  Dan and the dogs got kicked out.  Then on the way back to the main road we stopped by the Woodford Thoroughbreds as I had to take a few pics - one of the horses came up to say to me... and was promptely disappointed that I didn't have treats, but not before letting me pet him.

The horse farms with their white and black fences were breathtaking.  After a quick stop in Lexington for lunch at a really good deli we headed further east to the Red River Gorge area for hiking.  The area was stunning.  And the hike was a serious work out with all of those hills.  Good thing we had some candies from Muth's Candies (where I got repremanded for not saying please after each piece of our order- puh leeze!).

 Notice the attitude I am getting from the beagle in that pic of us on the gorge?  She did not want to be moved!

On Sunday we did a walk in Central Park, which was pretty and filled with squirrels.  The dogs dragged Dan all over the park.  It was really peaceful and a nice way to end the visit.  We loved our little getaway and really enjoyed the pretty views in Kentucky.  It was an awesome weekend.

We have at least three more trips to Kentucky- one for a touring the bourbon trail, one for touring the countryside north of Lexington, and one for a hiking/backpacking trip in the Red River Gorge area.