The cave is the largest cave in the world at over 420 miles of surveyed passageways more than twice that of any other cave. Some think there is another 600 miles to explore! Interestingly the cave does not have a ton of rock formations created by water (stalactite / stalagmite) due to the layer of shale over top of the cave. The formations they do have are wonderful and very big and are called flowstone. The cave is still being explored and new parts are being found all the time by spelunkers so maybe they will find all 600 miles of the cave. One of the first guides taking people into the cave was a salve named Stephen Bishop who at 17 started taking people into the cave. Stephen was not paid for taking people down but was allowed to keep tips and any money he was able to get from selling items to the various people he took into the cave. Some of these items were candles that allowed the visitors of the cave to write their names in the ceiling with smoke from the candles. These are still seen today when you go into the cave. Stephen explored much of the cave finding many miles of cave. He went over a place called “the endless pit” on a ladder and then came upon a lantern. He recovered the lantern and went to the entrance just above the lantern. An old many said to him when he exited, “You found my lantern.” Stephen asked how he know it was his and the old man stated that they sent a kid down into the cave on a rope with the lantern. The kid dropped the lantern and came back up, no lantern. There were other cave people before Stephen as it is believed that the cave was first discovered over 5,000 years ago. They even found a reed about 12 inches long with small holes in one side resembling a flute but it is not known what the item was used for all those years ago. The cave has a river flowing underneath it and the river’s depth is based the water level outside of the cave. The river has flooded part of the cave over the years. The park also has some hiking trails allowing you to see the abundant deer and turkey populations in the area. Note: Go on line and purchase tickets for the tours before you come to Mammoth Cave. The tours do sell out and it would stink for you to not be able to go into the cave since you did not book a tour early.
Extended Historic Tour – The tour is about 2 hours long and is over 2 miles in length but it also has over 170 stairs to climb in order to get out of the cave. You start at the main entrance to the cave and walk down into the cave via the stairs. When I was there there was water dripping down into the hole that was a part of the entrance however nobody was getting wet. Ranger Chris our tour guide had Intern/Ranger Sarah as the caboose of our little, 60 person, train. Chris stopped a few places along the trail in order to talk about various things to see within the cave. Historically the cave was used to get salt peter used in making gunpowder, they even thought that a cave would cure TB or consumption, along with many different tours people took within the cave. Having a lantern to be your source of light would have made walking in the cave interesting since it did not give off much light. On our tour some of the lights did not work so it was cell phone lights providing us with illumination. The cave has some “houses” which were used when the cave was thought to cure consumption/TB but that proved to be false. We walked across the “bottomless pit” but it did have a bottom just 105 feet down into the earth. The area called “Fat Man’s misery” is a very tight spot that you have to walk and it is only about 5 feet high and the path is only about 2 feet wide but this fat man got thought the misery without much problem. On the way out of the cave we had to walk up a “fire tower” type stairs since most of the tour we walked down into the cave.
Star Chamber Tour – The star chamber tour is different than all of the others tours within the cave due to it being illuminated with lanterns that you carry! The tour went to some of the same spots that the extended historic tour went but this time there was no lights on purpose, just lanterns. The tour was very cool as you got to see things in a different light, pun intended. The ranger leading the guide was good and we were able to see the “stars” when a light was shone on the ceiling of the furthest chamber we were in. We went by the houses for the TB people and then sat down and all of our lanterns were taken from us and we sat in total darkness for a few minutes, man it is dark. I don’t know how people stayed down in the cave for days on end in these huts but better them and me. Ralph Waldo Emerson went into the cave and loved the cave so much he wrote about it. Ralph went on two tours a short tour 6-8 hours and a long tour 12-18 hours. These tours are much longer than the tours you take now but I am sure that it was very moving then as it is now. The tour took us by some monuments that the guides allowed people to build as a way to clean up the rock floors, The largest monument was for the state of Kentucky and it went from floor to ceiling, and if someone else built one that came close to the ceiling it somehow fell overnight. The monuments you could erect for anything you wanted like your sorority, fraternity, business or even state like Kentucky. All of the stuff that was talked about in the cave was good but having only lantern light in the cave made it even better.
Domes and Dripstones Tour – The tour starts at the visitor center at the pavilion B and then we all mount up on busses to the cave entrance. The entrance to the cave is a few miles away from the visitor center but the bus ride is nice and short, although hot today. Entering the cave you head down about 200 steps and these steps are somewhat steep, wet from the water in the cave, and tight for someone who is tall and wide like me. At the bottom of the stairs there is a resting/gathering area for the rangers. The rest areas the ranger will talk about the cave and this one included a story of “dry hole George.” George was trying to make it rich on oil but as you can guess by his name came up dry all the time. He then started to explore the caves in the area. He thought that the caves were not just under the dirt of the original cave owner but that it extended to other land owners land. Well George went back to Ohio and raised money to purchase some land within the cave area in Kentucky. George’s land had a sink hole but he wanted another opening to the cave and he used what he know, dynamite, to open up a cave entrance. The over 20 sticks of dynamite opened a hole but George needed to send someone down the hole. He found a family member a nephew and tied a rope to his waist and down the boy went. Well the rope came to an end before the nephew reached the bottom. Back to the hardware store they went for more rope, and as luck would have it they had to go back a second time for more rope before they found the bottom. George when they found the bottom started to explore the cave and found out that some of the other cave tours went under his property. This was discovered by the writing on the walls of the cave under his land. George decided to go down and provide people with an easier way out of the cave through his land for a few extra cents. George also had a formation he called frozen Niagara and the bottom the drapery room. The frozen Niagara is a flow stone formation that is over 40 feet high and is confined to a section of the cave that is not more than 50 feet wide. The frozen Niagara is the part of the domes and dripstones that is the climax of this tour. When you see this part you are almost done the tour. The tour I did in 2019 and have to say that it was worth coming back and seeing it for a second time as it is a marvel to see.
Mammoth Cave Campground – The campground has 4 loops and 111 spots. The loops are A – D and loop A is for tents only. The spaces of the B – D loops are either pull through or long back into spots. The bad spots are much larger than those of most campground within the National Park System. The issue I have is that there is no “dishwashing sink” to a place for people to dump their dishwater. When I asked the Ranger at the checkin he did not know of a spot except for the dump station at the front entrance. I guess most people just dump the water on the ground or wash their dishes in the sink within the restroom. The restrooms are very nice here with flush toilets having a long and short flush on the handle to save water. The campground’s spots are all within trees and most spots have limited sun. Fire rings and picnic tables are at each spot and the fire ring has a brick bottom. Fire wood to burn should be purchased at the camp store and is not wood but compressed sawdust. The no wood is to prevent people from bringing wood with bugs but also to keep people from picking up the ground wood. It does not keep everyone from doing this but it is a good start.
