The watershed of the river is lagely agricultural land, with undulating hills over a bed of limestone. The river is a popular destination for fly fishing, in particular for varieties of bass.
All the major rivers in Kentucky eventually flow either northward or northwestward to the Ohio River, one of the major tributaries of the Mississippi River.
Within Kentucky are sections of the Cumberland and Tennessee rivers, two of the chief tributaries of the Ohio River.
The oldest reservoir is Herrington on the DixRiver, a branch of the KentuckyRiver.