State(s): Kentucky
Link: https://www.nps.gov/maca/index.htm
Days: 1.5
Month: May
Hotel: AirBnB
Hikes/Tours: 8 = 7.4 miles
National Park Visit Order: #14
Ice Cream: Lantern Cafe, Cave City Creamery
This was a fun park to explore. The caves were huge and lots of fun! Throughout our adventure, there were a lot of cicadas; there was a constant buzzing of them in most of the places we went.
Day 1
We started our day early going to the Cedar Sink Trail, an easy 1.5 mile trail. The path is mostly gravel and dirt with 295 stairs which could make it more challenging for some people. Most of the steps are to get in and out of the sink hole area. Along the way there are a lot of trees. There’s an optional cave view point that adds a little bit of hiking but not very much. It was pretty cool to check out. It also had a tiny waterfall under the cave area.
Next we headed to the Visitor Center. There is a cool (very well themed) exhibit that shows lots of info about the caves with a movie on a loop in part of it. We walked around while waiting for our Frozen Niagara Tour to start. This was a neat 0.25 mile 1.25 hour easy tour that is similar to what you’d see in most cave experiences. Most of Mammoth Cave is dry but this tour takes you to the area that has the stalagmites and stalactites that most of the cave does not have. It was really cool! Along the way we saw several of cave crickets too.
After the cave tour, we wanted to hike the Sink Hole trail but it was closed unless you went a back route. We opted not do do this one. Instead, we hike the Dixon Cave, Green River Bluffs, and River Styx Spring Loop. The cave was closed to humans but the trail was a nice moderate 1.6 mile loop. Part way through the hike there’s an optional scenic overlook that we explored then returned back to the main path. Part of the hike is very rocky and requires some minor rock scrambling with the option of doing a lot more rock scrambling! Toward the end of the loop we went to the original riverboat landing.
After the loop, we had lunch at the Green River Grill which was at the lodge.
We were thinking about leaving to drive to another trailhead but the parking lot was full, including the overflow lot. There were a lot of cars parking on grass and many more cars coming in. We opted to hang out at the lodge and visitor center so we didn’t loose our parking spot. After our food settled for a bit, we purchased ice cream at the Lantern Cafe.
Our final adventure for the day was the Historic Tour, a 2 mile moderate walk through the cave. We had to bend and twist to get through parts. There are 540 stairs on this tour. Fat man’s misery was a cool area with rock on both sides of you. We sort of had to shuffle sideways at certain parts. Part of the cave ceilings had peoples names in black. Later we found out candles were used to burn their names in the cave rock many years ago. Toward the way out, we saw a bat on the ceiling. Lots of fun!
We stopped to get a picture of the Mammoth Cave Sign as we headed for dinner at Bucky Bees BBQ. Everyone was happy with their food.
Colleen wanted to check out Buc-ees, so we went there for a short trip.
On the way back to our rental house, we went to Cave City Creamery to celebrate Colleen’s birthday. The ice cream was good.
Day 2
This day we were up and ready to go at 6:40am so we headed to the Sand Cave Trail. It was an easy boardwalk out and back with a distance of only 0.3 miles. It was a nice leisurely stroll through the woods. There was a tiny waterfall at the end with the cave. We heard a lot of birds singing as we took this stroll.
Next up was Turnhole Bend Nature Trail, an easy 0.5 mile loop. It started with about 45 stairs since we went counterclockwise. Most of the path was gravel. We discovered a little hole/tiny cave part way through the hike. A little further there was a viewpoint you we went to on the side of the trail. Beautiful birds making music along the way of this cool little trail.
Then we stopped at Sloan’s Crossing Pond Walk, an easy 0.5 mile boardwalk loop. We could hear several frogs as we walked around the boardwalk. Colleen spotted a frog by the waters edge near the boardwalk. For most of our trip we didn’t have bugs bothering us but this was the exception; there were a lot of bugs here. Despite the bugs, I could stay here a long time waiting for frogs and turtles to emerge. It’s very peaceful.
After we were done with the boardwalk, we headed to the Visitor Center to ensure we had parking before our final tour. We were there a bit too early for our 10AM tour so we walked to the Mammoth Cave Railroad Train that’s on display. From there we went to the Amphitheater. This was a cool area, it would be nice to see an event outside here.
Finally, it was time for the Discovery Cave Tour. This is a self guided 0.75 mile easy tour. The cave is huge! Some of this area overlapped with the Historic Tour but we did get to discover some new areas.
