Shae and I got lucky when planning our time in Kentucky as we happened to be staying near Mammoth Cave National Park during 2019 National Park Week.
We were staying at the Holiday Inn Express Horse Cave which is only 10-15 minutes from the park. In reality though, it’s more like 20-25 minutes until you get to the main parking lot and visitor center, but that’s just about as close as you can stay to Mammoth Cave National Park without actually camping inside the park.
Free Things To Do
Mammoth Cave National Park covers more than 50,000 acres and it’s free to enter the park. There are all kinds of hiking trails of different difficulty levels, taking you past waterfalls…
…and down by Green River. It’s not hard to understand how it earned its name.
One of the nice things about the park is that it’s pet-friendly, other than the cave itself. That meant we were able to bring Truffles back another day for a wander along a couple of trails.
Even though it’s completely free to visit the park, you’ll have to fork out some money if you want to go down into Mammoth Cave itself.
Discovery Self-Guided Tour
The cheapest way to get down into the cave is to take a Discovery Self-Guided Tour. This costs $6 for adults (I’m afraid I didn’t make a note of the cost for children) and allows you to explore a few parts of the cave.
If you’re on a tight budget or simply want to tick Mammoth Cave National Park off your list, this is probably a good option for you. You’ll get to see a small part of why Mammoth Cave is so mammoth…
…learn more about the cave’s past…
…possibly see some tricolor bats that are about 2″ tall…
…and see where a past cave entrance caved in.
We spent about 30 minutes doing the Discovery Self-Guided Tour to kill some time before a different tour we’d booked later that afternoon. This tour is therefore also a good option if you’re simply stopping at the park for an hour or two on your way somewhere else.
While you’re down there, be sure to ask the Park Rangers if they have anything fun to share about the cave. A special shout out to Tegan who told us a fun story about some explorers who found where a couple of cave passages linked up, helping Mammoth Cave to become the longest cave system in the world (that we know of right now).
Historic Tour
Shortly after we’d finished our self-guided tour, we made our way back up to a meeting area to take part in their Historic Tour which has a tour guide.
Our guide was Shannon and he was fantastic. He reminded me of the guy who played the Sheriff in Superman II and a couple of James Bond movies.
The tour took us back down through the same entrance of Mammoth Cave we’d descended earlier that afternoon. It’s a beautiful entrance that’s enhanced by a waterfall off to the side.
Although we started in the same part of the cave that we’d seen earlier, we soon proceeded to a different section that’s only accessible on tours.
One of the stories that Shannon shared was about how the cave ended up with several blackened walls. During the 1800s, Mammoth Cave started becoming a popular tourist destination. The only thing is that back then they didn’t have the option of using flashlights to find their way. Instead, they relied on rags soaked in bacon grease which let off an enormous amount of smoke, blackening some of the cave’s walls.
What seemed strange was that some parts of the cave walls had small smoke patches in high, distant places. It turns out that to light up those sections of the cave, tour guides of yore would throw the smoking rags, resulting in them sticking to the wall and causing the small, blackened patches.
At one point during the tour, Shannon briefly turned off all the lights to give us an idea of what it would’ve looked like for explorers back in the day. You have to admire the bravery of people willing to explore the cave passages armed with only rags and bacon grease.
The tour took us past Giant’s Coffin which, like Green River, doesn’t require much imagination as to why it’s named that way.
There are some sections of Mammoth Cave that aren’t so mammoth. As we descended further, there were numerous sections that required us to duck – even Shae who’s only 5’3″.
After a slightly higher, wider section…
…we came to Fat Man’s Misery.
Once again, the name leaves little to the imagination. It was given that name 100-200 years ago as the section is very narrow from the waist down. Back in those days, you’d often be wading through water as the passages were created by water flow. It’s thankfully dry now.
The passage went from being narrow at the waist to once again being low at the head.
The section of Mammoth Cave that we toured was unlike other caves we’ve visited that were full of stalagmites and stalactites. I think there’s a different tour you can go on in a different part of the cave that takes in more of those, although there were a few interesting rock formations along the way.
After a couple of hours, our tour came to an end and we headed back up out of the historic cave entrance, once again passing by the waterfall.
Tips
Based on our two visits to Mammoth Cave National Park, here are a few suggestions if you’re planning a visit:
Book Tours Ahead Of Time
It might simply have been because we were visiting during National Park Week, but the tours were very popular. So much so that several different tours were sold out at various different times. Mammoth Cave National Park allows you to book online ahead of time, so we’d recommend that. If all you’re wanting to do is take a Discovery Self-Guided Tour though, there’s no need to prebook.
Wear Appropriate Clothing
It was warm on the day we visited, so I was only wearing shorts and a T-shirt. When we’ve visited caves in the past, I think they’ve tended to be ~60°F (15.5°C), so I wasn’t worried about being too cold.
I hadn’t done my homework though. If I had, I’d have discovered that Mammoth Cave stays a cool 54°F (12°C). That meant I was a teensy bit chilly (and I don’t get cold that easily), so I’d recommend at least wearing something with sleeves, if not a light jacket.
Wear Appropriate Footwear
If you decide to walk some of the park’s trails, it’d be worth wearing good footwear. I was wearing flip-flops the day we returned with Truffles which, in theory, was fine based on the paved trails we took.
However, we decided to go off-piste down to the river. It was a little muddy and I managed to lose my footing and land on my butt in the mud.
Remember Your National Park Passport
We forgot to bring our National Park Passport with us the first day we visited. That’s one of the main reasons we returned the following day with Truffles – we can’t be needlessly forgoing those National Park Passport stamps!
Nearby Activities
Abraham Lincoln Birthplace National Historic Park and Abraham Lincoln’s Boyhood Home at Knob Creek are both fairly close to Mammoth Cave National Park. They’re both about an hour away from the park, so not too far if you’re on a road trip. Be aware though that neither his birthplace nor boyhood home feature the original homes – find out more about why here.
Final Thoughts
Mammoth Cave isn’t my favorite cave we’ve ever visited (Luray Caverns in Virginia still has that honor), but it’s still well worth a visit. Its 50,000+ acres has plenty to see and do, even if you don’t descend into the cave. Seeing as it only costs $6 to do that though, it’s definitely not worth missing out on seeing the world’s longest cave system.
Address
Mammoth Cave, KY 42259
If you want to do more NPS cave exploring South Dakota has both Wind Cave and Jewel Cave. Jewel Cave we had to arrive early that morning to hopefully score tickets for a day of tour. We got lucky and nabbed the first one. Wind Cave offers several more but also does tend to sell out of certain ones. Not sure if you can reserve in advance or not but we managed to still sneak into an afternoon tour following Jewel Cave.
Awesome, thanks for the tips – I’ve added those to our SD list of things to do. I’m not much of a morning person, so hopefully we’ll be able to book tours online in advance!