Vero Beach to Mammoth Cave

[berly1657]

We will be staying at VB and plan to take a lesiure (as lesiure as it can get with my husband) trip home and stop near Mammoth Cave and check it out.

Has anyone else done this? How long did it take you, did you have reservations at the cave?

Any comments will be helpful. We will have a 3 year old with us so our tours will be limited.

 

[bobbiwoz]

Not from Vero Beach, but we stopped at Mammoth Cave when we brought our sons home from Space Camp. It's a wonderful NP, truly amazing. We stayed on site in cabins, but there were motel accomodations within the park if I remember correctly.

Bobbi

 

[rocketriter]

Be aware that while Mammoth Cave is truly enormous with many intriguing and historical tours, it's not the home of spectacular formations. You'll see underground chambers larger than Grand Central Station, but you won't see the acres of colorful stalactites and stalagmites featured at a place like Luray Caverns. It's still entirely worth visiting. Just know what to expect.

 

[JimMIA]

The URL for Mammoth Cave NP is www.nps.gov/maca

NPS sites are a bit clunky (although nothing like Disney's) The key buttons to click on are "Activities," "For Kids," and "In Depth," and "Plan Your Visit," which has links for lodging, reservations, etc...always adviseable if you want to stay in any park.

MACA's home page says something about the "In Depth" link being "static," but I didn't see anything really wrong with it.

Have a great trip.

Ranger Jim

 

[JimMIA]

Another option might be Great Smoky Mountains NP (www.nps.gov/grsm ), which would also be on your route -- actually more on your route than Mammoth Cave.

Great Smoky is the most heavily visited national park in the system -- more visitors each year than Yellowstone, Grand Canyon, and Yosemite combined. It's a park where you can find traffic jams that make Yellowstone look like an HOV lane, but if you avoid US 441, you'll miss most of that.

Great Smoky is also a park of breathtaking beauty and many very quiet, serene places. Even in the most congested areas, you can walk 1/4 mile up a trail and be completely alone -- and it's also a park where many, many areas are visited only by a handful of visitors. We used to go there every summer when my older kids were small. It's a really special place.

If you need any inside scoop about Smoky, let me know because I'm currently working with a ranger who works there in the summer.

 

[rocketriter]

Another place to visit in the area is Berea, Kentucky. It's a college town, but what a college! Berea has provided work scholarships to Appalachian students since before the Civil War (and was racially integrated at its founding). The entire town is pretty much run by the students, who also do wonderful crafts, weaving and furniture-making. Stay in the Boone Tavern Inn if you can (also staffed by students) and see what a serious work ethic can accomplish.

 

[gracelrm]

I live about 30 minutes from Mammoth Cave. It is an amazing place. The tours I have been on before have all been in groups, so we've always had reservations, however, I don't know if you need them for a family of 3. The ones I've been on also required a tremendous amount of walking and a gazillion stairs. But surely there are some kid-friendly tours! I think the trip from VB to the cave area is a pretty long haul - probably close to 14 hours or so with stops. Good luck and I hope you enjoy your trip!

 

[berly1657]

Rocketriter

you won't see the acres of colorful stalactites and stalagmites featured at a place like Luray Caverns.

Where is this? and will we have to make advance reservations? and how far in advance?

We are actually with a group of 9, including a 3 year old. 4 adults, 10,9,7,7,3 year old

Does anybody have any good hints on picture taking inside the caves? I have an SLR and a digital that has the same settings as my SLR, same zoom too...just a smaller camera and I only need 1 lens! I obviously don't know how to use all the settings on my camera no matter how many times I read those books...

 

[rocketriter]

Luray Caverns is in Virginia and not really on your trip path. Sorry.

 

[crisi]

I love Mammouth Cave.

Reservations are necessary for the more popular tours. Most of the short tours that run often you can walk in.