Kentucky Route 61: Elizabethtown to Hodgenville
Kentucky Route 61: Elizabethtown to Hodgenville (Lincoln Parkway)
Running approximately 11 miles south from Interstate 65, Kentucky Route 61 connects Elizabethtown with Hodgenville along a divided highway known as the Lincoln Parkway. This corridor provides a direct regional route moving travelers away from the busy Interstate corridor into the rolling farmland and wooded ridges of central Kentucky’s historic Lincoln country.
The drive begins on the south side of Elizabethtown, where KY-61 interchanges with Interstate 65 near the eastern terminus of the Western Kentucky Parkway. This area functions as a key regional transportation hub, defined by heavier commercial development and freeway traffic. Once past the interchange area, however, the commercial sprawl quickly gives way to open countryside.
Continuing south through southern Hardin County, the Lincoln Parkway functions as an efficient divided connector across gently rolling terrain. The roadside scenery transitions into agricultural fields broken by tree lines, barns, scattered residences, and patches of forest. Rather than passing through intermediate settlements, the route offers a direct and rapid change of scenery from Elizabethtown’s commercial fringe to open rural landscape.
As KY-61 crosses the county line into LaRue County, the route enters the historic landscape associated with Abraham Lincoln's early childhood. Lincoln was born in 1809 at Sinking Spring Farm near modern-day Hodgenville, an area that fell within Hardin County boundaries at the time. His family subsequently relocated to Knob Creek, where Lincoln lived until moving to Indiana in 1816. Today, both locations are preserved by the National Park Service under the Abraham Lincoln Birthplace National Historical Park. The Birthplace Unit—located roughly two miles south of Hodgenville on U.S. Route 31E—features the Memorial Building containing a symbolic cabin alongside the original Sinking Spring site.
Approaching Hodgenville, the seat of LaRue County, signs of development return with scattered roadside properties along the town's perimeter. The drive along KY-61 concludes at its junction with U.S. Route 31E in Hodgenville, where travelers can transition from the modern four-lane parkway to local streets and routes leading to the historic sites tied to Lincoln’s earliest years.
Posted Sep 8, 2026, 11:35 AM UTC