With Elsa's passing, we were trying to distract our attention by visiting few places in Kentucky for a start. FYI, Elsa was our dog and she just passed two weeks before due to cancer.
Our first destination was Mammoth Cave National Park. Joe wanted to visit it for a long time but never had the chance. Well, that day finally came.
We booked the reservation for Frozen Niagara Tour a few days before the tour because Ayu casually looked up the website and found out that there were only 14 available seats left on that weekend, so we did it right away. Our tour schedule was on Sunday, April 23rd, 2017 at 09.00 AM. Though reservations are not required but are strongly recommended, you really don't wanna spend the time to go there just to find out that there's no seat left, right? They offer sign interpreter services for cave and surface activities to visitors free of charge if you give a notice two weeks prior your visit, which is really cool.
The Frozen Niagara Tour is the shortest and cheapest tour. The distance is 1/4 mile round trip (1 hour, 15 min) and it costs $13 for adults, $8 for kids, and $6.50 for the senior pass or access pass cardholders. We think this is the best offer for a starter.
We got up early as it is almost a two-hour drive from our place to Mammoth Cave. As we were driving by to the Visitor Center, the GPS was dead but you will not get lost because there are enough of road signs that lead you to it. We arrived at the Visitor Center at 08:30 AM only to find out that it is on Central Time and the office was locked. At first, we thought that we were late and we got panicked until Joe finally figured out that we were actually too early ðŸ˜. We decided to spend time in the car as it was raining and play some Candy Crush.
After an hour passed, we went to the office and checked in. At 08:55, we should be ready at the shelter to take the bus to the cave. Before we went, a ranger briefly explained to us details about the tour.
It was a 15-minute drive from the shelter to the cave. When we got there, the ranger explained more about the cave and the cave rules. You won't even notice that this place is actually a cave since it looks more like a hidden storage. The entrance was used exclusively for tours since it was opened.
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| The cave entrance |
With 405 miles (652 km) of surveyed passageways, Mammoth Cave is by far the world's longest known cave system, being nearly twice as long as the second-longest cave system, Mexico's Sac Actun underwater cave (source: Wikipedia). This tour is dimly lit, so even though you can't use your flash to take pictures, you are still able to take good pictures.
George Morrison opened up this entrance in 1924. According to the ranger's explanation, geologists estimate that the Mammoth Cave began forming around 10 million years ago. It's estimated that some of the Stalagmites and Stalactites are over 190,000 years old. It takes 100-300 years to form one cubic centimeter. The cave resembles a frozen waterfall, hence the name.
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| The top of the cave |
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| The frozen waterfall |
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| River inside the cave |
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It's easier to take pictures on our way back because you have more time to do it with fewer people in it. We were the last ones to go back and the ranger had to ask us to leave because there was another group waiting outside for the tour.
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| The water drains 360 feet below the surface |
At the end of the tour, after you come back to the Visitor Center, all participants in cave tours will be required to walk on bio-security mats to remove spores and dirt after exiting the cave. This is due to a disease called white-nose syndrome (WNS) that is spreading through the eastern United States, killing bat populations. We didn't find bats inside the cave though, only spiders and cave crickets.
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| Bio-security mats |
We really enjoyed our short cave adventure and we will definitely come back again someday to explore more cave tours.
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| Cheers! |
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