After another pleasant night in the Country Inn, the plan for the morning was to go on a Wilderness Expedition. We'd seen plenty of cities and sports destinations. Time to change things up a bit.
We were heading south to
Mammoth Cave National Park. We had a fairly leisurely morning--we'd scheduled a 10:30 a.m. tour. But Mammoth Cave is on Central Time, while Louisville is in the Eastern Time Zone. So the plan for the morning was to leave the hotel by 9:30 for the 2-hour drive to make our 10:30 tour.
About 3/4 of the way to the park, we crossed the line and went back in time.
Whoa, I guess we overshot there. We readjusted the flux capacitor and made it to Mammoth Cave in about an hour and a half.
The park, like a lot of the big national parks, is popular, so the only way to enter the cave is to sign up for one of the various guided tours that are offered. The tours vary in length from an hour to all-day hikes. Obviously some are better for smaller children, and the more rigorous ones are restricted to adults, can involve miles of walking and even some crawls through very tight spaces. Sort of like trying to find the Christmas decorations in the basement.
We had signed up for the Frozen Niagara Tour, which was a 2-hour hike through what most accounts said was one of the prettier parts of the cave.
We checked in at the visitor center and got our tour tickets. Then I was asked to go over to another ranger station. Seems there was an outbreak of
White Nose Syndrome among the bat populations around the United States. I have no idea what that is, other than it's fatal to bats. If anyone had been in another cave in the last 2 years and was wearing the same shoes, they had to go to the Ranger station for "treatment".
Well, I had been in Luray Caverns in Virginia in April of 2010, and I had no idea if they were the same shoes or not, but I figured I probably shouldn't chance it. So, the Rangers put me through a highly complex scientific process of...
...soaking my shoes in Lysol for 5 minutes.
With that done, we boarded the (non-air-conditioned) bus to take us to our three--sorry, two hour tour.
Mammoth Cave is the longest cave system in the world, at 392 miles mapped (and counting). It was first discovered and used by Native Americans as a shelter, with European settlers stumbling upon the site around 1797. Tours have been offered since 1816, making it one of the U.S.'s oldest tourist attractions, but it wasn't designated as a National Park until 1941.
The Park Ranger leading our tour (I forget his name. Let's call him Walker) led us off the buses and down to the New Entrance. As opposed to the Historic Entrance, which is much closer to the visitor center.
It was yet another blazing hot day--temps would approach 100 degrees. Yet we were carrying sweatshirts, because the temperature inside the cave was a crisp 54 degrees. With a few last words of warning about tight spaces, climbing down stairs, steep drop-offs, etc., we were on our way in.
I thought the Expedition Everest shirt was appropriate for exploring a cave.
We had to climb down about 250 steps or so to get down into the cave. This involved quite a few switchbacks, catwalks and bridges over long drops. I know what you're thinking--this is the dope who can't stand the Tower of Terror, surely he couldn't handle that walk!
Well, I could handle it. And don't call me Shirley. In fact, I thought it was cool. See, I don't mind heights at all--as long as I'm not falling from them.
Once we'd climbed down all the stairs, we hiked through various tunnels and passageways.
It was awesome!
The kids did really well. Sarah and Dave thought it was cool right off the bat and had a blast. Scotty had to warm up to it--he was scared of the dark areas at first. But to his credit, he didn't whine or complain, and eventually started enjoying himself.
Walker, Park Ranger was a very informative guide. He took us into one room called Grand Central Station due to the fact that it was a large high-ceilinged area where 5 different tunnels merged. In another, he gave us an idea of what the words pitch-black truly mean by shutting off the lights in the cave. When people say they couldn't see their hand in front of their face--well, that was literally the case here.
The last stop on the tour was a formation called Frozen Niagara. It gets its name from the way the rock appears to be a sheet of ice flowing over the edge of a crevice. I tried to get a decent picture, but the flash was washing it out, and we didn't have our tripod. So it came out somewhat blurry. You can still somewhat make out the effect, though.
Below the formation was the Drapery Room, where quite a few stalactites and stalagmites had formed. Walker was nice enough to take our picture there.
Not that you can see anything with the flash on, of course.
There, that's better.
When all was said and done, we'd hiked about 3/4 of a mile. Which means we only have 391 1/4 miles of cave left to see!
It was a bit of a drag to emerge back into the cramped buses and 100-degree heat. Thankfully, the drive back to the visitor center was brief. When we disembarked, everyone had to walk on a Bio-Mat*, once again protecting against White Nose Syndrome.
*carpet soaked in Lysol
Scotty fell in love at the visitor center with the National Park Service's Official Stuffed Animal©, Buddy Bison:
We were back to our Official Road Trip Lunch® of PB&J and cheeseballs. As we dined in the parking lot, we wandered over to an exhibit showing one of the old Mammoth Cave trains that used to shuttle visitors between Park City and the visitor center.
We enjoyed the tour so much we wanted to spend more time wandering the cave. There is one self-guided "Historic Tour" that you don't need to sign up ahead of time to do. Unfortunately, the rangers said it was "not running" that day. I wasn't sure why that was the case, but it was a mild disappointment. In any case, we thought the cave was a pretty amazing place to explore. It was well worth the visit.
Coming Up Next: Time out for history and Rocky Balboa. And the 3 sweetest letters in the English alphabet.
Have a great Thanksgiving today 
Oh, you mean actual peanut butter? 
What happens to visitors who don't know they need to sign up for one of the tours? Too bad you couldn't go on the second tour.
