It Grew! Mammoth Cave National Park, Kentucky
Mammoth Cave National Park Map and Visitor Information
The washer and dryer have been humming along all morning, one of the measures of a truly great vacation. We were limited to a shorter get-away this time but found a great adventure within a mere five hour drive from Columbus: Mammoth Cave National Park, Kentucky.
My childhood memories of the cave area lacked the wonderful details we discovered this time around. ~And this is perhaps the first time that a place was actually larger than I remembered.
Massive-sized memories of our elementary schools or family home backyards usually shrink a few sizes upon a revisit, seldom measuring up to the vision captured in our youth. Not this time. Mammoth Cave had actually grown since my last visit. More correctly, the discovered areas of the cave have grown now to a remarkable three hundred sixty seven miles, around ten of which are available to tour with a park ranger.
We hiked six or seven of those hidden miles.We also enjoyed hiking the above ground terrain of Mammoth Cave National Park. Even the rain seemed to accommodate us, occurring mostly during the times we were underground, making Mammoth Cave an ideal non-weather dependent get-away!
Mammoth Cave National Park Map and Visitor Information
The largest cave system in the world; 367 miles so far…!
Miles of trails both above and below ground.
Hiking, biking, kayak/canoe, horseback riding, hunting/fishing, camping…
“Yes” for pets (not in Cave; kennel available within park)
Park Fees: None for park entry. Cave tours range from $5 – $48.00 with discounts for youth and senior citizens.
Mailing Address: P.O. Box 7; Mammoth Cave, KY 42259
Phone: 270-758-2180
Directions: Travel south on I-65 from Louisville, KY. Take Mammoth Cave/Cave City exit 53 and follow the signs to Mammoth Cave NP.
Park Website
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It’s wondrous to me that our cities have kilometers of man made tunnels beneath our feet and even more wondrous that nature has created another world down there for us to explore. Have you read any of Nevada Barr’s books? Each is set in a different national park. I am sure you would love them.
Suzanne: I haven’t read Nevada Barr, but that’s an intriguing premise. I think there are somewhere around 366 NPs in the US. That will allow for a lengthy series!
What really grabbed me while wandering those “tunnels” was that -while we were walking through “Level 4″ of the Cave -”Level 5″ was being actively created just below us! I guess at times, you can hear the water rushing through (and it occasionally reaches Level 4 during floods).
I know what you mean about things shrinking. Some things just don’t size up to my childhood memories. I wonder if we’ll be saying that in another 30 years. “Wow, Planet Earth just doesn’t seem to be as big as it was when I was in my 40′s” Excuse my humor. It’s a tad bit off I know. Great post! I love your comment about this outing not being weather dependent. A nice place to go whenever!
A $48 cave tour sounds expensive. It must cover a lot of ground.
Mammoth Cave sounds like a nice place to visit. I have seen the billboards on I-65 on my trips to Nashville when I was an over the road truck driver.
The only cave I’ve seen is Ruby Falls on Lookout Mountain in Chattanooga, TN. in 1989 right after I got out of the Army. It was a fun time.
367 Miles of Cave is Amazing!! Now I wanna be a Spelunker!!
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Now this sounds like a really kid-friendly travel excursion. We took our kids through caves in the Dominican Republic but it never ocurred to me that we could do something similar nearby! Thanks for the tip!
One of my two dream cave places to visit in the US. I’d love to know more of your underground impressions.
It sounds attractive to me:)
Intrepid: The curse of the well-traveled… Although the more you see, the more you want to see, I think.
Graham: The most expensive one is the “Wild Cave” tour, a highly physical, small group spelunking adventure that takes the better part of a day and takes visitors to some areas not available to regular tour groups.
Brian: ~And I’ve seen the billboards for Ruby Falls on various road trips! We thoroughly enjoyed Mammoth Cave. I planned the trip for the kids but enjoyed it just as much myself.
Billy: It seems incredible that they’ve not yet found the end of the cave system! As for the spelunking, I’m definitely into the climbing; the tight spaces would be mentally challenging… If not for the minimum age requirement (16 years), we’d have done the “Wild Cave” tour I mentioned above.
Fly Girl: I’ll be sharing more specifics on what we did in the next week or so, but yes, parts of Mammoth Cave look like locations in an “Indiana Jones” movie. -Very fun for kids AND their parents too!
Mark: I bet the other is Carlsbad? I’ll be writing about more of our underground time later this week. Even after our longer four and a half hour trek, we hated to leave!
Tina: Some of the formations were truly stunning.
Heather…your sense of adventure hath no bounds….the caves though…ahhh, I really don’t know because they totally freak me out!
Jollyjo: Short life; big world (hence, the “sense of adventure”). I think we all have to enjoy it the way we personally can enjoy it. I understand your aversion (and can’t say I’m wild about encountering the occasional bat), but the geology and history is truly fascinating!