Mammoth Cave – Meanderings & Mind Munchies

Mammoth Cave and Lost River Cave

This morning we did our second tour of Mammoth Cave. This one was called the Domes and Dripstones tour.

Oh. My. God. It was awesome.

As usual, my photos will not do it justice. The first section of the tour was of the domes, which are deep vertical shafts.

The entrance to the cave was something out of Doctor Who. Just a steel door in the middle of the woods.

We descended hundreds of steps down the narrow vertical shafts.

Once we had gotten to the second level of the cavern system, we entered what our tour guide called the “and” portion of the tour.

When we got to this room, I took an ignominious tumble off a step and fell on some poor little Indian lady before landing on my back. How embarrassing!

That ceiling is natural rock, not man-made.

Eventually, we arrived at the “dripstones” portion of the tour.

Mammoth Cave is mostly a dry cave, which means that there aren’t that many stalactites, stalagmites, and flow stones, but this section does have them.

Lost River Cave

I talked Greg into one more cave experience before we leave Park City, Kentucky. So after lunch, we headed to Lost River Cave.

This cave tour involved a boat ride on an underground river. Unfortunately, the cavern was so dimly lit that almost none of the pictures from that part of the tour came out.

The first section of the boat tour involved an exceedingly low ceiling.

Tomorrow we head to Louisville, Kentucky.

This ends the cavern portion of our trip. There is another cavern in Louisville, but Greg refused to take a tour of it. 😆

Mammoth Cave and Diamond Caverns

We are here in Park City, Kentucky, specifically to tour Mammoth Cave. Today was our first of two tours of the longest cave system in the world.

We did the history tour today.

Mammoth Cave is unlike any cave I’ve been in previously because it lacks stalactites or stalagmites — at least the section we saw today. Plus, it’s huge.

It’s almost impossible to get a decent picture in a cave using my camera phone, but here are some of the better shots I got of Mammoth Cave today.

Not all of the areas were wide open. In some places, we needed to duck quite low.

And this area, known as Fat Man’s Misery and Tall Man’s Agony involved squeezing ourselves through a particularly tight section.

And there were steps. Lots of steps!

And deep gorges.

Diamond Caverns

We are staying at a campground right across the street from the entrance to Diamond Caverns, so it seemed like a no-brainer to take a tour there, too.

See those white stairs inside the building? They lead to the entrance of the cave.

I have to confess that I enjoyed this tour more than the one of Mammoth Cave. There was so much more to look at.

Sadly, the pictures can’t do it justice.

On the road again…

Greg and I are about to head out on our first camping trip of 2025. We’ll be doing a six-week trip through Virginia, Tennessee, and Kentucky, with most of the time spent in Tennessee. Here is our tentative itinerary:

3/31 – 4/5	American Heritage RV Park	Williamsburg area
4/5 – 4/10	Waynesboro North 340 Campground	Charlottesville, VA, area
4/10 – 4/11	Pioneer Village RV Park	Port Chiswell, VA, area
4/11 – 4/18	Riverbend Campground	Pigeon Forge, TN, area
4/18 – 4/23	Spacious Skies Belle Ridge	Monterey, TN
4/23 – 4/28	Raccoon Mountain Campground	Chattanooga area
4/28 – 5/4	Elm Hill RV Resort	Nashville area
5/4 – 5/8	EZ Days RV Park	Memphis area
5/8 – 5/11	Thousand Trails Diamond Caves	Park City, KY, area
5/11 – 5/14	Louisville South KOA Holiday	Louisville, KY, area
5/14 – 5/17	Seneca Lake Park and Campground	Cambridge, OH, area
5/17 – 5/18	TBD	PA, somewhere

Child #2 and Child #4 will be holding down the fort for us. I’ve outfitted both of their bedrooms with fire escape ladders in case they set the house on fire while we’re away.

Tennessee, here we come!