September 7, 2024
After arriving in Kentucky in late August, it took to our final weekend to do an “official” trip to Mammoth Cave National Park.
In all fairness, Ash and I already visited the park twice before, once to hike the Dixon Cave, Green River Bluffs, and River Styx Spring Loop and once to hike the Echo River Spring and Sinkhole Loop Trail but this was Brandy’s first visit, the first time I went into the visitor center, and the first time into the eponymous cave.
Mammoth Cave
Mammoth Cave is the world’s longest known cave, having 426 miles of cave passages explored and recorded. The cave is a “solution cave” where rain water seeps through the soil, picks up carbon dioxide, creating a weak acid, as it leeches into the fragile limestone beneath. Over millions of years, the rocks, eaten away by this rain water, has collapsed creating this massive cave system under western Kentucky. It’s estimated this process started about 10 million years ago and still continues to this day.
After a long and illustrious history, including mining saltpeter for the manufacture of gunpowder, treatment of tuberculosis patients and the discovery of mummified remains of ancient inhabitants of the area, the national park was established in 1941 and now sees over half a million visitors a year.
The national park offers several touring options to see different parts of the cave system. Tours are as short as half an hour and as long as four hours and vary in difficulty from being handicap accessible all the way up to being rated “strenuous.” Most are guided tours but we elected to take the Discovery tour, which is an inexpensive self-guided tour that is on the short side at around half an hour (though, being self-guided, you could spend longer in the caves if you so desired.) The Discovery tour is typically only offered from Memorial Day through Labor Day, the latter of which was the weekend before our visit, so there was no guarantee that we would be able to take that tour but I had one in mind if that one wasn’t available.
Our Visit
I let Brandy sleep in to about 8:00 Saturday morning. She took her time getting up and ready and by the time we left the house, it was almost 9:00. We got to the park about 15 minutes later and headed into the visitor center where I bought two tickets for the Discovery tour that was indeed available this day. I paid the $24 and got actual tickets in return. The ranger that sold them to me told me we were allowed entry to the cave any time between 10:00 am and 2:00 pm, leaving us about 45 minutes to kill.
We headed over to the park store, did a little browsing and were told the gift shop in the hotel over the bridge had a better selection of merchandise. We headed over the bridge and to the hotel where there was indeed more of a selection than the park store. We picked up some souvenirs then, while Brandy waited on a bench in the shade, I went back to the truck to drop the merchandise off.
When I returned, we headed down the hill I’d gone down a week earlier to the mouth of the cave. Shortly after we got there, a couple of park rangers showed up, gave us the safety spiel and let us in to the cave.
Into the Darkness
It wasn’t really that dark. They had plenty of electric lights throughout the cave…
The descent into the cave was short, 64 stairs then through a steel door that was way back into the cave from the mouth, explaining why it appeared unguarded when I passed by it the first time a week prior.
As we went down the stairs, a veil of falling water flowed from the rim of the ground now above us, giving us a perfect soundtrack to lower ourselves into the cavern.
The only other cave system I’d been in up to that point was Carlsbad Caverns, a cave with a wildly different aesthetic. The mineral deposits forming stalactites and stalagmites are noticeably absent from Mammoth Cave, instead being flat, level striations of limestone and fallen debris that opened up the cave system.
As we headed down the entry hall, I remarked at how much lower the cave ceiling was than Carlsbad’s Caverns. I don’t recall have to duck under much in New Mexico, but I had to stay stooped as we made our way deeper into the earth. Soon enough, the ceiling opened up above us and I had no qualms about walking completely upright.
Before long, we happened upon an abandoned saltpeter mine in the large rotunda of the cave.
Saltpeter is a primary ingredient in the manufacture of gunpowder, the demand for which was at an all-time high in the early 1800s, particularly during the war of 1812.
Mining saltpeter was hard work and there weren’t a lot of people willing to do the work voluntarily so the vast majority of the miners were slaves that were brought into the area from surrounding states on a lease. Those same slaves would wind up being responsible for building many of the trails in the cave, moving large rocks and laying down flat rocks to make it easier for their oxen and donkeys to pull the carts they needed to move dirt around.
Right across the walkway from the remains of the 200 year old mining equipment is a memorial to the fallen soldiers of World War 1. The monument was proposed by the American Legion in 1922 by the group requesting a list of names of those that had perished during the conflict. At the dedication of the monument, the list of names was entombed in the base before being sealed.
Seven years later, a second monument was erected next to the earlier cenotaph, this one dedicated to the American War Mothers, a group that formed during the Great War dedicated to supporting other women who were affected by the soldiers’ absences, and to ensure goodwill messages were sent to the fighters overseas.
After years of being on display, the monuments were defaced by vandals to the point where the markers were moved from the entrance of the rotunda to an unvisited part of the cave behind a pile of rocks.
After decades of being hidden away, they were rescued from their hiding place in the 2010s, preservation efforts were made and in August of 2017, on the 95th anniversary of the dedication of the memorial, they were re-dedicated.
Beyond the markers, there was a long corridor that obviously contained a passageway to a branching off tunnel. The tunnel was pitch black and nothing could be seen in it, but the sound of pouring water was very clearly heard.
Further on down the line, we happened upon the Lookout Mountain, where I had stood 70 feet up on the surface just days before. This is what I’d seen on the Monday prior:
I didn’t quite grasp the concept of what I was reading at that time, but after visiting the site from within the cave, it became crystal clear
We continued on down the passageway to a large room where the pavers ended and we were walking on the packed dirt floor of Rafinesque Hall, named for “Kentucky’s Eccentric Naturalist,” Constantine Samuel Rafinesque.
More educational signed line the circle at the end of the trail. After reading them, we made the about face and headed back to the mouth of the cave. The climb out was, of course, more strenuous than the descent, but after a few breaks going up the stairs, then up the long hill to the visitor center, we finally made it back.
We rested for a moment before getting into the truck and making our way toward the entrance of the park, where the trailhead for Sand Cave trail is situated. We parked and after Brandy had taken her pictures of the welcome sign, we began the short trek down the three-tenths of a mile hike down the level boardwalk to the namesake cave.
In 1925, Floyd Collins, who already owned the Great Crystal Cave, was in search of either an alternate entrance to Mammoth Cave, or an entirely different, undiscovered cave. The Great Crystal Cave was too remote to draw many visitors.
One day, he found a hole in the ground that he gradually expanded on it until he was able to crawl in an begin serious excavation efforts. One day though, he didn’t come home. Working alone, the cave he was working in caved in, trapping him. Efforts to rescue him were hampered by a variety of forces. Alas, in February of 1925, after being trapped underground for two weeks, Floyd died of hunger and thirst.
There are informational signs talking about these events in detail as you walk down the short, easy boardwalk to the mouth of the cave. As you reach the end of the boardwalk, you’re greeted with a view of the cave opening below you, carved out of the face of the surrounding hills.
After a moment of taking some pictures, we made our way back to the truck and headed out to lunch.
Lunch in (el) Acapulco
I’d seen signs for a Mexican restaurant called el Acapulco since we’d arrived and had, in fact, passed it several times on my journeys to Walmart in nearby Glasgow. We decided to go grab so lunch there.
I didn’t have high hopes for a Mexican restaurant in the heart of Kentucky. We pulled up and walked in and I was immediately optimistic about the upcoming experience. The smell was good, the decor was a typical Mexican restaurant- lots of colors, furniture to fit the theme, and Nortenas music playing over the speakers.
We were led to a table in the empty bar area and were brought chips and salsa. One salsa was in a black bowl and the other was in a red. To me, there was no discernible difference between the two. It was a relatively smooth, blended salsa, heavy on the tomatoes. There was zero spice to either of them. I was prompted to ask then, is there a difference between the two? We were told the salsa in the red bowl was supposed to be the “hotter” of the two. Even Brandy, with the palette of a Midwesterner, thought it was spice free.
Anyway, we perused the menu and I was astounded to see offerings of items like al pastor tacos and quesabirria tacos. I hadn’t had quesabirria in a long time so I ordered those, while Brandy ordered a crab meat chimichanga, which she had before (of course, not from this place, but from somewhere.)
We also ordered a cheese dip and guacamole for an appetizer. The cheese dip was a little on the runny side, but the flavor was fine. The guacamole, while not hand-made by any means, was certainly better than the mass-produced grocery store stuff. Signs were pointing up.
When our food came, I was presented with my three tacos on one plate, and beans and rice on another. That plate, the one with the beans and rice, was probably about three times hotter than the surface of the sun. It radiated heat to the table and I think burned hair off my arm (I jest, of course, but it was pretty damned hot.)
The tacos were surprisingly good. The meat wasn’t shredded very fine though so one bite would pull most of the meat out of the corn tortilla shell. They were also a little sparing with the cheese, but the flavor was really good, especially the consommé, very flavorful, just the right amount of fat to coat the mouth without it feeling greasy. To drink, I ordered a large horchata, which came out in the most comically large frosted mug I have ever seen. I’ve only had horchata out of Styrofoam to-go cups, drinking it out of this mug was a whole new experience for me. It was a very sweet beverage. The rice taste was nice and strong so we knew it’d had plenty of time to come together, I just wish they’d have cut back juuuust a hair on the sweetness.
Overall, I was pleased and surprised by the quality of food at the Kentucky Mexican restaurant. Is it the best I’ve ever had? No, not by a lot shot, but it certainly isn’t the worst I’ve ever had either. In fact, a few days later, we ordered from the same place, this time I got the al pastor tacos. They were just as good.
After lunch, we headed back to our AirBnB to finish up the last of our time in Kentucky.
Conclusion
I am always eager to visit a National Park and Mammoth Cave was no exception. I enjoyed exploring; there are plenty of opportunities for hiking, education, and retail as well as lodging options including camping, cabins, and an on-site lodge.
Pictures from our trip to the park are on my Photo Diary, and I was able to cobble together a simple little YouTube seen here:
My next post will be a kind of wrap-up overview of our time in Cave City, similar to the post I made wrapping up our time in Vermont, then stay tuned for my report on my time in Albuquerque, my favorite!
Until next time!
-Phil