It can be seen as an extension of U.S. Route 79 (US 79), as they have the same number and once intersected; KY 79 begins in the same city that US 79 ends, and both travel on a northeast–southwest diagonal path.

Kentucky Route 79 crosses KY 70 for a final time, and becomes known as Caneyville Road.

After KY 79 enters Grayson County and has access to the Wendell H. Ford Western Kentucky Parkway on the south side of Caneyville and intersects KY 185 at that route's northern terminus, adopting its northerly direction, and immediately afterward crosses US 62 in downtown Caneyville.

KY 79 then goes north towards Pine Knob, leaving the coalfield, and passes through Short Creek, where it intersects KY 54 then goes through the developed portion of Falls of Rough, and Rough River Dam State Park.

The route once went to the nearby Ohio River bridge, but that was superseded with the completion of KY 313, the Joe Prather Highway, through Meade County.

[citation needed] In Meade County, KY 79 previously ran around the west side of Brandenburg to the Matthew E. Welsh Bridge across the Ohio River, where it terminated on the Indiana state line to become Indiana State Road 135.