The Rattlesnake (KY-192)

Breaks Interstate Park straddles the Kentucky–Virginia line 7 miles east of Elkhorn City, KY, protecting the deepest gorge east of the Mississippi River — five miles long and up to 1,600 feet deep, carved by the Russell Fork of the Big Sandy. Four named overlooks (Clinchfield, Stateline, Grassy, and the Geological Trail viewpoint) look down into the canyon. The park entrance is reached via KY-80/VA-80, a sinuous mountain road that is itself a destination. A $3 day-use fee applies; the Visitor Center has maps, restrooms, and a historical museum.

Kentucky Route 90 traverses 134 miles across southern Kentucky from Cave City in the west to Williamsburg in the east, with the most prized motorcycle section running 27 miles through Daniel Boone National Forest between Parkers Lake and US-25W near Corbin. The road threads through dense hardwood forest, past rock formations and cliff-line views, and lands at Cumberland Falls State Resort Park midway through — home to a 125-foot-wide waterfall nicknamed the 'Niagara of the South' and one of only two places in the world where a moonbow (lunar rainbow) appears regularly under full-moon conditions. The pavement is well-maintained with plentiful curves and no significant potholes.

US-25E enters Kentucky through the Cumberland Gap Tunnel — one of only two tunnels in the United States that cross a state line under a mountain — and continues north through Middlesboro and up through Pine Mountain State Resort Park and Kentucky Ridge State Forest to North Corbin at I-75. The Kentucky segment, roughly 50 miles, travels Appalachian ridge-and-valley terrain with views of the Cumberland Mountains. The historic Gap itself is the centerpiece: Daniel Boone's Wilderness Road passage in 1775 through this same natural notch opened the American interior, and the National Park Service manages the surrounding Cumberland Gap National Historical Park, with the Pinnacle Overlook accessible via a spur road near Middlesboro.