The Great (North) American Road Trip: Welcome to the Underground (Mammoth Cave, KY)

Mammoth Cave National Park, KY

When Jen first said she wanted to go to Kentucky, I thought to myself "What the hell is in Kentucky?" She then told me that there was a National Park that had a cave system in it, and that piqued my interest. We drove into Kentucky and the state was very pretty. It was filled with lush trees and greenery, along with many little streams and rivers snaking their way around. The only thing that was annoying about the state was very poorly named and labeled highways and street signs.

Someone in Kentucky thought it would be a good idea to name the major highways after people, instead of giving them a nice uniform number like the rest of the country does. Not only is this annoying since you have to remember some crazy name that is long and hard to recollect, but also the signs are small, which makes the lettering small, which in turn makes it hard to know what exit to turn on. Needless to say we had a couple of close calls getting on and off the freeways. The main city streets were not much better as it was hard to navigate when you can't read signs. Eventually we made the right decisions and found our way to the beautiful area that housed Mammoth Cave National Park.

Mammoth Cave started out like many of the other cave systems in the Kentucky area, as a privately owned tourist attraction. Back in the day, the owners of the land that resided above the cave system pretty much allowed whoever paid the admission fee to roam around in the caves with a guide. After some exploration, the federal government found there to be more than what was thought to be there and swooped up on the cave. Mammoth Cave has been a National Park ever since. Since It is the longest known cave system in the world, there are parts of the cave that are still being explored and new areas are being mapped out all the time. In fact, we were notified that they were doing an expedition at the end of summer to map out some new areas. The caves currently lead paths of over 367 miles of caverns and tunnels, which easily double the next longest cave system. The caves are filled with rich limestone, as are most caves, and topped by sandstone, which allows for the cave system to be very stable.

Jen and I arrived at the Park around nine or so in the morning and had yet to eat. We saw that there was a diner at the lodge and checked the prices to see how much breakfast would cost. As Jen checked the prices I walked over to the visitor’s center to check times for the guided tours and get info on the different tours to take. I arrived back to the table and since the prices were decent enough, we ordered up some food. We ordered a standard breakfast to share with all the trimmings of pancakes and eggs and such, but I wanted to try some good old biscuits and gravy as well. The biscuits were amazing. We had received some with gravy, as well as having some instead of toast included with our meal. The waitress also gave us some freshly made preserves that made the biscuit fantastic. The waitress was such a sweet lady, and it really set the tone for pretty much everyone we met in Kentucky.

Following our delicious meal, we were ready for our hike into the depths of the Earth. We decided to take a tour of "The New Entrance," because it was a decent enough price and it took us to a variety of spots within the cave. After making our reservations, we had a bit of time to kill, so we headed out to the car to put on our newly bought hiking boots. In Minnesota we found a pretty sweet surplus store that sold most everything you could think of, including some serious hiking boots, at ludicrous prices. They were marked down because a loop was busted or something minor like that had happened to them. Thanks to super glue, the malfunctions were soon fixed and they were like brand new. After grabbing some water and gearing up, we headed towards our meeting area as it was time to head out.

We arrived at the meeting area and waited for the time to leave. As we stood around waiting, we overheard a conversation between the park ranger and two thirty something aged ladies, accompanied by three kids (ages roughly equaled ten, three, and one-ish) and the ladies were concerned that they weren’t allowed to bring any bags into the caves, despite there being multiple signs and notices everywhere. They complained about the possibility of having to change a diaper, and that they needed their diaper bag for this. The Ranger flat out told them that it was not allowed and that they needed to put in their car or in a locker, and to bring a couple diapers with them in their pockets if they needed them. If I had a child that needed to be carried around, as well as have its diaper changed, I might think twice about bringing them underground on a two hour hike through a cave system, but that's just me. This obviously wasn't of a big concern to them as they crammed the bags in a locker, while having a serious attitude about it, and loaded onto the bus that was taking us to the cave opening.

The best thing about walking into a cave is that they are climate controlled. Caves are always the same temperature no matter what the weather is like outside. They stay the same temperature in winter as they do in summer because they are not affected by the elements above ground. This climate control allowed for a cool, much appreciated change to the hot and humid exterior of the caves. The cave was a brisk temperature somewhere in the sixties, and was like walking into an air conditioned space, especially after riding in a hot, congested school bus to the cave entrance.

When we entered the cave it was like stepping into another world. The walls were usually tight and windy and staircases sometimes needed to be walked down by leaning to the side, because the rock surfaces jutted out into the walkway. It was so interesting to walk around in. It was easy to get caught up in all of the deep dark holes that were carved into the walls. There were pits that seemed as if they would never end. Everything about it was great as it had many different areas that were all very unique. There was a great wide open room that felt like an amphitheater as well as tight crawl spaces that made you feel a little bit claustrophobic as you walked through them. It was a great experience until the ladies with the kids reminded us that they were in the cave with us.

The youngest child decided that he had enough of this damn cave and wanted out. Unfortunately, the path through the cave is a one way street and we were only about halfway through the trip. The kid decided he wanted to scream and throw a fit, which prompted the mom to do pretty much nothing as she held the kid in her arms. The mom was much more interested in talking to the other lady she was with, about whatever it was that was much more interesting than the magnificent cave that they paid good money to explore or her kid that was yelling her face. It seemed like they could care less that they were in a place that was so beyond the norm and so intriguing and amazing. The kids would later run ahead of their parents and kind of just butt into people including Jen and myself. It was at this point that we needed to cut in front of some people, or I was going to either smack the kid in the throat or throw into a deep pit. Luckily we escaped the little terrors and had a good time.

We came to one of the open areas in the cave and the park rangers talked a bit about the history of the cave and spewed out good old information about the caves and held a nice Q and A. During the talk they gave, they mentioned how no light from above ground entered into the cave, with exception for the openings in the ground. This prompted the rangers to demonstrate the darkness by flipping off the lights. When the lights went out, it was darker than anything I had ever seen in my entire life. It was so dark, that when I opened and closed my eyes, there was no difference between the two. It was so dark in fact, that Jen started to freak out a little bit, as she grabbed my knee and I could feel her shaking a little bit. She was very much overwhelmed by how dark it got down there and I don’t blame her. If I ever was stuck in something like that with no lights, I would freak because there was literally no way of grounding yourself and finding your sense of direction.

Being in the extreme darkness, freakishly reminded me of the movie The Descent, in which a group of adventurous girls travel down into an unmapped cave system. They soon find themselves to be lost in the cave without a distinct path out. While this is enough to scare someone pretty good, it turns out there is much more to be afraid of. There is a great set of monsters that live in the cave that like to eat on humans. The way that the film makers designed the creatures was fantastic as they based it on the idea that if a set of humans were to be trapped in a cave and found a way to survive and breed. This sparked an interest in me since it was very specific to how other creatures evolved to live in caves. The creatures lost all sense of vision and had enhanced hearing much like bats. The monsters were terrifying and on the whole the movie is easily one of the best horror movies I have ever seen. If you haven’t seen it, check it out as I have watched it easily a good ten times and it still makes me jump at certain parts.

Following the darkness, we were led into what was known as Frozen Niagara, named for its likeness to Niagara Falls. It was a series of stalactites and stalagmites that formed themselves and looked much like a waterfall as they formed over rocks and sort of melded themselves to the walls and rocks. The cave on the whole was just an amazing foray into a land that is so peculiar and different than most anything we are familiar with. The only bad part about the cave was leaving. When the hatch opened up and we walked outside, we were reminded that the comfortable sixty five or so degree cave was not the same as the near hundred degree, humid weather of the outside world. Despite the reality check of the weather, we had a great time spelunking in the cave and want to go back and explore more of the system as we only saw about a forth of what is open to see there.