I was right . . . it sure is beautiful here in the camp grounds of Mammoth Cave. We woke up to beautiful tall trees, the smell of the woods, and wonderful sunshine. National Park Camping sacrifices luxury with beauty because there aren’t any hook ups but we get to walk and sit amongst the trees and there is nothing like it. We were able to walk right down to the visitor center to sign up for our cave tour. It was hard to pick which one to do because they had so many choices, but we asked 2 Rangers and they both said, “definitely do the New Entrance tour because it’s a good mixture of everything.” So we took their advice and I’m so glad we did. . . .the tour was amazing.
Mammoth Cave is the longest natural cave in the world. Beneath sandstone and shale lie limestone formations and tunnels 150 to 250 feet down inside the earth and 395 miles long of explored passageways. The tunnels wind around back and forth, up and down around a 27 mile circumference, just like the small intestines wind around in our stomach. The rock and soil combination of the land has created this beautiful cave over all of the years after Noah’s flood. The land in Kentucky has low pockets, or divots, all over the hills where the rain water saturates the land. As rainwater infiltrates the soil, it picks up small amounts of carbon dioxide gas that reacts with the water to form a weak carbonic acid, making the groundwater mildly acidic. Mammoth Cave was formed by the slow dissolution of limestone by groundwater. Over the years as groundwater dissolves the limestone, it form underground streams and create the underground streams. All of the streams flow into the Green River. Rain water continues to sculpt the caves today and volunteer explorers are still finding more passageways every year.
Some of them were “Millions of years ago” and we all snickered at each other, and I was very thankful that we had just come from the Creation Museum. He told us that the cave is all limestone rock with sandstone and shale on top. Before it was a National Park and guides were giving tours they would let people write on the walls, but now it’s against the National Park laws. Many famous people would come to the caves and he showed us that John Wayne had carved his name in the wall. From where we were sitting we were 150 feet into the cave but there is another 250 feet below us and that is where the streams all run eventually into Green River. The temperature in the cave also stays at a constant 55 degrees at all times no matter what the weather is outside. It felt perfect in there and a little balmy so it wasn’t cold and it wasn’t hot. He showed us how the cave is lit up with all the lights and then he told us he was going to turn off the lights for a minute and that we were not to make a sound. WOW!! It is spooky quiet and dark. Then he told us to put our hands in front of our face and we couldn’t even see them!! Can’t imagine exploring this cave like they did in the 1800’s with lanterns!!
Next we walked to the stalagmites and stalactites. This great big one was called the Niagara because it was to big!!!
To be continued!!
Mammoth Cave played an important part in the start of American tourism. It was publicized the “mammoth” cave of Kentucky during the war of 1812 and became an attraction by 1816. It is one of the many wonders of nature in America like Grand Canyon, Niagara Falls, Yellowstone Park, the Giant Sequoias, etc. It was authorized as a National Park in 1926 and was fully established in 1941. The Union Pacific Railroad ran tracks to the park and brought in wealthy vacationers by loads to see the “Mammoth Cave”. With its 53,000 surface acres and underlying cave ecosystem, Mammoth Cave National Park is a treasure.
We took a bus from the visitor center for our cave tour and drove to an entrance that looked like a vault door. There are only 15 natural entrances to the cave, but only one of those is allowable to enter with a tour. There are 5 manmade entrances and as we were driving our ranger explained to us why it is called the New Entrance. A wealthy business man named Robert Morrison came to Mammoth Cave in the early 1900’s to explore and he discovered this wonderful cave that could attack paying people. He blasted the land that was not National Park property but close to private property and made an entrance. He started tours and charging people to view the caves. But he was sued and put in jail for violation of property. But this didn’t stop him. . . when he paid his fines he came back again and bought a piece of the cave property closest to the entrance of the cave property for himself so people would see his tours first. He blasted an opening and called it the “New Entrance” so people would think it is something new that they needed to see. He was smart and actually made thousands of dollars. He ended up selling his property back to the National Park but made a 1.5 million profit.
As we entered the door we climbed down steps after steps after steps of narrow passage ways through the rocks. It was awesome! The kids were thrilled! We climbed down 150 feet of steps, walked a little ways and then stopped to sit on some benches inside the cave while the ranger told us all kinds of interesting facts.
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