Echo River Spring and Sinkhole Loop Trail, Mammoth Cave National Park

September 2, 2024

After a whirlwind start to the long, three day weekend, Ash and I woke up early on Labor Day and headed over to Mammoth Cave National Park for an early morning hike.

Brandy and I were planning on going to Mammoth Cave on Monday but after a night of drinking, she wasn’t up for it. I decided Ash and I would get a hike in anyway so I got up and dressed and we were out the door at around 6:30 am.

The Trail

AllTrails has the Echo River Spring and Sinkhole Loop trail listed as an easy 2.6 mile loop hike with 354 feet of elevation gain.

The trail originates near the park’s visitor center then heads west, toward Green River on a relatively level, paved path before dipping down drastically toward the river. The path loops around then climbs back up to the approach trail and past the visitor center to the trailhead.

We arrived in short time and found a mostly empty parking lot. I found us a spot near the trailhead and under a tree. I sprayed myself liberally with bug spray to avoid the horsefly attacks I endured three days earlier. I leashed Ash up and we headed through the parking lot, found the trailhead, and started the timer.

Old Guide’s Cemetery and Sunset Point

Once past the visitor center and gift shop, the trail had us walking on an elevated boardwalk overlooking the deep ravine in which the mouth of the main attraction sits. The trail wound through the trees along this path until we came to an intersection.

Our first deviation from the prescribed trail took us down a short spur trail straight ahead at this intersection. This spur terminated at Old Guide’s Cemetery, the final resting place of, among others, Stephen Bishop, who was one of the first people to explore Mammoth Cave and who drew the first map of the cave system from memory, off-site. Mr. Bishop’s map was considered the authoritative map of the cave for over 40 years.

Others buried in the small cemetery are people from the local community and some people that died of tuberculosis while attempting to be remedied in an experimental process by living in the nearby cave. Rumor has it that the huts these people lived in are viewable on some of the guided tours into the cave. We will see if that stands up in a later post.

After backtracking off the spur trail, we found ourselves on the lower track of Heritage Trail which leads to Sunset Point, an overlook that provides a wonderful view of the rolling, green hills of the park.

The Sinkhole

From Sunset Point, the trail wound through a series of switchbacks that dropped us deep in the Green River’s valley, just down the shore from our previous hike.

The trail largely leveled out and straightened out once we were near the river. It wasn’t long before we were on the paved portion of the Echo River Spring trail. It was starting to warm up and we’d been on trail for a bit by this point so we planted ourselves on a bench on the trail and took a snack and water break. Once satiated, we continued on the paved trail for a while before I got notification from AllTrails that we were off the prescribed path. We backtracked a bit and found where we were supposed to have turned, where the Sinkhole trail intersected with the path we were on.

Sinkhole trail saw us back on a dirt path and saw us climb nearly 200 feet in elevation in about half a mile. The trail leveled out again for a bit then climbed again, this time at a more gradual pace.

Along our way, we came across a couple of points of interest, including:

• Mammoth Dome Sink – This is the official namesake sinkhole that helped form Mammoth Cave. A short spur trail takes you down into the sink where you can explore. We went down a little bit toward the sink then I decided we were getting in over our heads so I turned us around and we headed back up to the main trail.
• White’s Cave – I couldn’t find much information about this tiny cave entrance, but there was a sign announcing it. As we approached, I saw that it is barricaded against entry. The entrance to the cave was tiny. Even if I laid down to try and wriggle through the entrance, it would be a tight fit.
• Lookout Mountain – Lookout Mountain is actually a pile of rocks 70 feet below the trail cutting off Rafinesque Hall off from the rest of the cave system at Mammoth Cave. Erosion cut into the cave sealing off this portion of the cave off. From atop the passage, the view is of the forests and hills.

The trail continued upward and onward culminating with our return to the paved Heritage trail, past the gift shop and visitor center and back to the parking lot where the shaded truck waited for us.

Conclusion

All told, with our detours and missed turns, we wound up traversing 3.7 miles and covering over 400 feet of elevation gain, taking nearly 2 hours to do it.

I found this trail to be a little more difficult than the “easy” reported by AllTrails. I, for one, would have rated it moderate, but that’s not my choice, although AllTrails is now letting users add their own difficulty rating once the trail is completed. I don’t know if they will use that data to re-assess the trails’ ratings based on user input or what, but I did note that I found it a little more difficult than easy.

At the end of the hike, though, I was thoroughly drenched in sweat as it was another hot and humid day in Kentucky, but I felt super accomplished and happy that I was able to finish the hike without incident (like, injury or running out of water.)

When I got back to the AirBnB, Brandy was still recovering from our night of alcoholic consumption and there she stayed for the remainder of the day.

On deck for the next weekend, we are planning on an official trip to Mammoth Cave to tour the cave, maybe find a very easy, flat hike to take and pick up our requisite souvenirs for the tub.

Then, on Sunday, we have tickets for a ride with Rail Explorers in Lexington, which I am SUPER excited for!

Pictures from the hike are, as always, in my Photo Diary and, until next time…

-Phil