Spring Break - Mammoth Cave National Park

After good night's sleep in a cute AirBnB, we headed toward Mammoth Cave National Park. We stopped at Buc-ee's on the way - the kids' first time there. I used the bathrooms per my grandparents' recommendation and they were quite nice!

We had booked the Historic Tour of Mammoth Cave months ago and a few days before we arrived got a notification of its cancellation. We noticed all the flooding in Kentucky on our drive it, but apparently the lower levels of the caves were completely flooded. They said flooding like this happens "once in a generation" and apparently we hit it. Total hiking, above and under ground, a little over 8.5 miles.

We went through the visitor center to find out some basic cave education.

Then we pivoted to the Broadway Tour - one that stays on a higher plane in the cave and was still running.

Entering the cave:

There were some low spots near the entrance. Chris had to watch his head!

Then we were into the larger/higher parts of the cave - this area being the rotunda.

The tour was very interesting! Apparently John Wilkes Booth's brother (a famous actor at the time) gave a performance of Hamlet on top of this rock:

At one point, there was a clinical trial for people with tuberculosis. They lived underground (some for up to 6 months!) in little rock huts. The thought was good, but they built fires for light and the smoke, having nowhere to go, stained the limestone black and ruined the clean air they were breathing.

We went into the star room and saw it sparkle (in the video below).

And we learned how during the early 1800s, people scraped mineral from the walls and made gunpowder.

Back before the cave became a national park (1941) people going through the park would graffiti everywhere. Now that's illegal, but we did find a Stratton who left their name in the cave! I believe her first name was Marjorie.

It was a great tour - a mile into the cave and then back out. This is apparently the longest known cave system in the world though so there are many more miles to explore.

Clips from our cave tour:

After the cave tour we did some hiking around the national park. Honestly though, because this park is known for the cave and because of all the flooding, we weren't necessarily impressed by the hiking.

We started with the Green River Bluffs Trail and turned onto Echo River Springs Trail.

We went as far as we could until the trail disappeared into the flooded and muddy river:

We found other cave entrances on our second hike (barred off so no one could enter) - Cedar Sink Trail.

Then we headed to Turnhole Bend Hiking Trail.

These two danced the whole way.

Then it was back to our AirBnB to relax and sleep. Chris and I sat on the front porch to enjoy the beautiful weather.

The next morning we watched the sun rise in Kentucky, ate some breakfast, and then headed out to Tennessee.

This was our favorite AirBnB of the trip!