Mammoth Cave National Park

Great destination! Enjoyed the open trail and peaceful outdoor atmosphere.

Please….visit your national parks. Mammoth is amazing. It is the longest known cave system in the WORLD. 426 miles of documented passages. Twice as long as the second longest. They believe that there are at least double the amount of the 426 miles not documented. The park sits on 53,000 acres and has 80 miles of trails. The rangers guiding you with such interesting facts, just makes it more of a wonder. Book your tickets early. I believe it’s up to 3 months in advance. You will not get the tour you want if you do not book in advance. When you check the website you can pick your time and it shows how many tickets are left. You think you have time but you will be surprised how quickly they go. (Recreation.gov) The self guided walking tour path to the main opening is downhill and then you meet a ranger at the bottom and they give you instructions. You then head down the stairs and to the actual path inside. It is approx a quarter of a mile in to the end with nice wide paths and a ranger at the far end to answer any questions. There is a very nice visitor center with plenty of parking. When we purchased the tickets on the website, it instructed us to arrive 1 hour early. I believe that was due to the construction in the area. But we did arrive one hour early, checked in at the center and received instructions on where to go when it is our time to leave for our tour. We did Domes and Dripstones. .75 miles long and it lasts 2 hours. It is considered strenuous but I did it at 56 years old and there were people older than me and young children. Some areas are a little narrow but no one had any issues and there were many different sizes and shapes on our tour. There are approx 640-648 steps up and down with an additional 96 steps if you choose the one extra passage. (48 steps down and of course 48 steps back up) Do the extra steps to this area I felt it was worth it. While waiting for our tour, there is 2 gift shops with slightly different stuff and a walk through area that tells you a lot about the cave. We had a wonderful day here and my pictures don’t do it justice.

Went on 2 cave tours, Extended Historic Tour and Gothic Tour. Both were fabulous. Beautiful park.

We got the best of both worlds doing two tours that focused on history, The Great Onyx was smaller scale but had many stalagmites/tites and a great telling of a legal battle that set a national precedent. Lunch was very good and reasonably priced. The extended historical tour was inspiring: not just the views but also the confirmation that I can still make it up and down the inclines! Again, the guide really enhanced the experience. It’s the largest cave system in the world. How could anyone not be impressed!

Great destination! Enjoyed the open trail and peaceful outdoor atmosphere.