Mammoth Cave National Park: Part 1

My final stop of Sunday was at Mammoth Cave National Park. After setting up my tent, I drove some of the back roads of the park and saw the Mammoth Cave Baptist Church and a beautiful rainbow along the way.

Baptist Church

Floyd Collins grave

At the Sand Cave stop I learned about Floyd Collins. While exploring for a new cave, a rock fell on his leg, trapping him. Initially he was brought food and water but a collapse closed that route off to only voice contact. After 14 days underground he died of exposure, thirst, and starvation, three days before a dug rescue shaft could reach him. I had never heard of him but apparently he was the third-biggest media event between the world wars (after Charles Lindbergh).

Dixon Cave

That evening I did some short hikes around the visitor center to Dixon Cave, the River Styx Spring, and the Heritage Trail. I ended my night by listening to the campfire program about life at Mammoth Cave during the Civil War.

River Styx Spring

Monday morning I descended into the cave on the Historic Tour. It begins at the natural entrance and its highlights include the saltpeter mines in the Rotunda, Giant’s Coffin, Bottomless Pit, Fat Mans Misery and Mammoth Dome.  This is known as the standard introductory tour to Mammoth so it was a great tour to start with.

Historic Entrance

Fat Man's Misery

Mammoth Dome

Due to the geology of the area, Mammoth doesn’t have a lot of water dripping in the caves so there are really no showy formations as in other famous caves. However, the Domes and Dripstones tour I did in the afternoon offered up the few that exist. A bus took us to the entrance and we immediately descended down 300 metal stairs. The views of the pit throughout the descent were very cool. The tour winds through the cave before emerging into the Drapery Room with stalactites, stalagmites, and columns. Nearby is Frozen Niagara which resembles a frozen waterfall. The tour ends by crossing over Crystal Lake and emerging back into the sunlight and stifling heat and humidity.

Frozen Niagara

Both the Historic and Domes and Dripstones tours are lit so you can see very easily but with no flash photography allowed, it is hard to get pictures. What I didn’t like about both those tours was the fact that there were so many people. Both have a limit of 120 people but with so many people the rangers try to keep everyone moving so it kind of felt like being herded and not really being able to stop and soak everything in. There are photography only tours offered that take smaller groups in and allow them to use tripods and such but I figured I was there to learn, not take professional photos so that's why I opted for the Historic and Domes and Dripstones tour.