Mammoth Cave National Park - Discovery Tour

We drove east across southern Missouri, eventually dipping into the very southern tip of Illinois for about 5 minutes before crossing over the Ohio River into the state of Kentucky. A few hours later we finally made it to our destination - Mammoth Cave National Park.

The National Park protects Mammoth Cave, which is the longest cave system in the world. There are over 400 miles of surveyed passageways, and as many as 300 more miles that have not yet been explored. The cave has been designated a World Heritage Site, an International Biosphere Reserve and an International Dark Sky Park.

To actually enter the cave you need to be on one of the official tours provided by the National Park Service. We signed up to do three tours during our visit, and the first was the Discovery Tour. This is a short self-guided tour, which starts by taking a flight of stairs down into the Historic Entrance of the cave. This natural opening has been used by visitors dating back thousands of years (I was kinda disappointed that you didn't enter the cave by sliding down fireman poles, like Batman and Robin used to get into the Batcave in the old TV show).



Once you enter the cave it quickly gets dark and cold (the temperature inside the cave is 54 degrees).



Inside the cave are two memorials dedicated to those who lost their lives during World War I.



The cave here looks like a massive tunnel going deep underground, as if carved by the dwarves in Lord of the Rings.



It wasn't all that easy to get pictures inside the cave. It is pretty dark in there (obviously), and tripods aren't allowed. I tried taking pictures with my camera, but most of them turned out blurry. I ended up having better luck using my cell phone camera during the trip.





The Discovery Tour is short, only about a half-mile into the cave. There are a few artifacts on display, and some information signs to peruse. And if you have any questions, there's a few park rangers there to answer any questions (they said they love answering questions because that beats just sitting around in the dark). We turned around and headed back into the bright daylight outside.



We had another tour scheduled for later that day, so to kill some time we did the short hike to the Styx Spring. We arrived to find the spring was flooded, thanks to some recent heavy rains.



Next to the spring were some massive trees, so this was the view looking up:



I was pleasantly surprised to see so many hiking trails above the ground at Mammoth Cave, it was a nice and pleasant place to walk about.