Mammoth Cave National Park preserves not only the longest known cave system on earth (400+ miles), but also 53,000 acres of beautiful forest. With nearly a dozen miles of cave trail below ground, and a surface boasting nearly 70 miles of nature trail, 13 backcountry campsites, three campgrounds, and over 20 miles of navigable river to explore and enjoy, it really is two worlds in one.
Established: July 1, 1941
Size: 54,011 acres
Rank: 47
#Visitors in 2018: 533,206
(Visited December 2017). We visited Mammoth Cave in mid-December 2017. This was about the half-way point on our road trip to visit my parents in Charlotte, NC. We figured that it would be a great time to visit since the temperature inside the cave is a constant 54 degrees all year. We knew there was more to explore above ground too, but the primary attraction is the cave, so off we went. Overall, it was a very good time to visit. We booked a room for a couple of nights at the park lodge and we were the only overnight visitors the first night, which was OK except that the main desk of the hotel and the restaurant did not stay open for us. We knew this in advance as the management told us they would leave our keys in a box outside the hotel entrance door. We also ate dinner in Cave City before venturing down the long, dark road into the park. The next morning, we walked over to the hotel and happily found that the Spelunker’s Cafe was open for breakfast. We ate a delicious hot breakfast of eggs and bacon. We then went to the Visitors Center to get our passport stamped, talk to the Rangers, and book another cave tour. We booked the Domes and Dripstones tour in advance, but added the Historic Tour. We had some time before the first tour, so went on a short walk to the Old Guide’s Cemetery. This is where Stephen Bishop, an African-American cave guide is buried.
We walked from there to the Natural Entrance where we met the Park Rangers and the rest of the tour group for the start of the Historic Tour. Another huge advantage of visiting in December is the size of the tour groups. Ours only had 16 in it. In the summer, tour groups can reach as large as 160. We just couldn’t image this as it was difficult enough to hear everything the Ranger was saying. In this part of the cave, due to the large, natural entrance, there are more historic artifacts that show the first human uses of the cave. One of the most evident artifacts are the remnants of saltpeter mining, active during the War of 1812. There was also quite a bit of smoke writing on the walls and ceilings. Early visitors used candle smoke to create signatures, now considered part of the history of the cave to be preserved. If done today, it would be considered vandalism.
We took the Domes & Dripstones tour in the afternoon. We had to take a shuttle bus to the other end of the cave system to reach this tour. We also had to enter the cave through a man-made elevator shaft- not quite as impressive a start as the Historic Tour, but this tour promised the only cave formations such as flow stones, stalactites, stalagmites, etc. Mammoth Cave is not known for its beautiful formations primarily due to the sandstone capping the layer of limestone below preventing the slow seepage of water that is required to form these geological wonders. Only in the Frozen Niagara section of the cave can you see these types of formations. Mammoth Cave is know for its mammoth size- over 365 miles of surveyed passageways! It was named a World Heritage Site in 1981.
There is more to explore in Mammoth Cave National Park. There are over 84 miles of hiking trails, many of which go into the backcountry. According to the Mammoth Cave National Park website, the area around the park Visitor Center offers 7.2 miles of scenic trails that venture from ridgetop to river, from sinkholes to springs, from old guide’s cemeteries to overlooks, and from historic engines to the Historic Entrance. We explored the River Styx Spring Trail where we saw beautiful views of the Green River (well named!). To our surprise, the orange colors of the late fall leaves provided a beautiful contrast to the white/gray sandstone. The Green River, which is central to the formation and health of the Mammoth Cave system was a stunning rainbow of blues and greens.
