Spelunking Adventure
- Vicky
- Nov 9, 2022
- 3 min read
Updated: Mar 29, 2023
There are a lot of National Parks that I have visited, but there are still so many that I haven’t had a chance to visit yet. One national park that I have wanted to visit for a long time was Mammoth Cave located in Kentucky. In September 2020, Michael and I visited this national park as we did a road trip around Kentucky and Tennessee.
Mammoth Cave National Park from the surface has rolling hills and deep river valleys but underneath is the world’s largest known cave system with more than 400 miles discovered and more being discovered yearly.
There are many ways to stay at Mammoth Cave such as cabins, hotel rooms, and campgrounds. I decided that we had enough camping for Michael’s taste, so stayed at one of the historic cottages. Outside these little white cottages seem quite unimpressive, but inside it was comfortably furnished, and we even had our own bathroom.
We explored some small hiking trails around the area that showed us views of the rolling hills and an old cemetery. We also walked by the old train with passenger cars from the Mammoth Cave Railroad. This railroad played an important role in Mammoth Cave’s early tourism.
There are many tours you can take of the cave system. However, when we visited only a self-guided historic tour was offered. Michael and I went to our assigned spot to wait to enter the cave through the Historic Entrance. The Historic Entrance is the largest natural opening into the cave system. This opening has served as a gateway into the cave for thousands of years from when the prehistoric people first entered some 5,000 years ago, to saltpeter mining operations, and then to tourism. There have been cave tours taking place at Mammoth Cave for over two hundred years. As we descend the few hundred steps down, we notice how much the temperature changes from being fairly hot to cooler. The average temperature is around 54 degrees Fahrenheit.
Our Historic Tour took us to see only 2 miles of the cave system. We saw the Rotunda, Bottomless Pit, Fat Man’s Misery, tuberculous huts, and saltpeter vats. The Rotunda is a large circular room that you first visit as you enter the cave. In the center of the Rotunda are the saltpeter vats. There are two tuberculous huts that were used as an experimental treatment. The sick would live in the cave for around 5 months without seeing the light of day.
When we finished up with our tour, we decided to go find another cave tour. Since Mammoth Cave only had the one offered at the time, Michael and I found a small privately owned cave that gave tours. We picked to tour Crystal Onyx. Our tour guide, Sally, was simply wonderful. She had so many fun stories that we just had an amazing time exploring the cave. The adventure begins with a short walk to one of the many sink holes. The cave was so different from Mammoth Cave since it was well lit.
After touring caves, I decided to have us walk to another smaller cave. This cave was White’s Cave. The trail I had picked out for us was a loop. However, as we approached the cave, we were stopped by a deer who was eating off the trail. We figured we could wait so we found some rocks nearby to have some M&Ms. The deer refused to leave so instead of disturbing in the deer we turned back the way we came.
Another hike we did while at Mammoth Cave National Park was an easy 0.2 mile boardwalk trail that leads out to Sand Cave lookout point. Sand Cave is not connected to Mammoth Cave, it’s its own cave. Along the way are signs that tell of an American cave explorer, Floyd Collins, who had become trapped in a crawlspace 55 feet underground. There were many people who had come to rescue him or just to hang out around the area. However, sadly after 14 days underground Floyd Collins died.
Mammoth Cave National Park is one of the parks Michael and I would visit again. We had so much fun exploring the 2 miles of cave system we were able to tour and really want to explore other parts of the Mammoth Cave system.
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