Mammoth Cave National Park (mostly pictures)

Location: The Narrows Campground (COE); Glasgow, Kentucky

I thought long and hard if I would be going to see Mammoth Cave or not. I've toured two cave systems in the past and was only half pleased. That sounds strange, it sounds like I was sad half the time. It isn't that. Perhaps my expectations were too big when I saw Carlsbad Cavern in New Mexico and Longhorn Caverns in Texas. I guess caverns to me is like Redwood Trees were to Ronald Reagan, "you seen one, you've seen them all." Carlsbad Cavern reminded me of the It's A Small World ride at Disney Land. It sounds strange since they should be opposites, but as soon as I got off the elevator at Carlsbad, my immediate thought was it was all fake. That probably tainted my viewpoint after that. I gave the cavern thing a second chance by going to Longhorn Caverns and it was a little better. I think it was better because you walk into the cavern by a pathway instead of an elevator. You can use the search bar to find my old posts about those caverns by searching for Carlsbad and Longhorn.

So with those past experiences in mind, I decided to give this "going underground with tons of rock above your head that can fall down and crush you at any moment like what happened to Big Bad John just to see something that Disney could create using plaster paris and set it to a song that will run through your head to make you a little more crazy." Yep, I did.

Although it is interesting, I won't get to deep into how and when the experts "think" the cavern was made. I take their ideas about some things with a big grain of salt, heck, they still think the Grand Canyon was formed by rock being eroded by a small river. Anyway, you see I got distracted again. Most caverns are formed over many millions of years as a large inland lake deposited material that became limestone with sedimentary rock and shale over the top of it. The limestone is dissolved and washed away leaving the large open caverns behind. In just a couple of sentences, that is the guess of the scientists. Wait a minute, since I have a Bachelors of Science degree in Civil Engineering, technically I'm a scientist. Maybe I need to be a little nicer to my "science brothers", nope, not gonna happen. 

The rest are a few pictures to give you an idea of what the cave is like in case you want to visit. Of the three caverns I've visited, this is perhaps the best. Entrance fee for the self guided tour, with senior pass, is a bargain at $4.00. 

They don't charge you a fee to enter the park, but they do charge for cave tours. I arrived a little after 9:00 am and most of the guided tours were already reserved. If you want one, you better make a reservation online and not just show up. That was fine with me since I was doing the self-guided tour which is usually open all day long.

From the Visitors Center, you walk downhill about 1/2 to 3/4 of a mile to get to the historic cave entrance. You don't want to think about the return walk will all be up hill. But they do have a few benches along the way. "Thinking benches" on the way down and "Let me catch my breath" benches on the way back up.

You get the rush of very cool air coming out of the cave. The water dripping from the entrance is from yesterdays rain but it adds to the mystique of going underground.

More steps. 

Light at the end of the,,,,,,, that ain't right, I'm at the beginning.

The cave is large

As an engineer I was just as impressed with the material used to create the pathway. 

I thought I was going to be mostly alone, but there were at least 30 or 40 visitors already in the cave

On the self guided tour, you go about 1/2 mile in the cave then turn around and go back to the light.

A bench would have been nice about half way out.

Looking back at the cave entrance to give an idea of how little bit of rock is bridging the cave.

It was a nice way to spend a few hours and get some much needed walking exercise at the same time. 

Ya'll take care of each other. Maybe I'll Cya down the road.