Mammoth Cave National Park in Kentucky, USA | Franks Travelbox

Mammoth Cave National Park in Kentucky, USA
Mammoth Cave National Park is home to the spectacular Mammoth Cave, whose gigantic underground halls can be explored on 500km of hiking trails. Fresh air fanatics enjoy the idyllic landscape around Mammoth Cave.
Mammoth Caves National Park in central Kentucky in the United States is located around the core area of Mammoth Cave, which is the largest cave system in the world with its gigantic extension of more than 600 kilometres.
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Over the millennia, acid rain water created gigantic passages, shafts and chambers in the limestone layer, which is up to 400m thick. Today, these passages are accessible to visitors through 500km of hiking trails and extend over 5 levels. The park has been a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1981 and was declared a biosphere reserve in 1990.
The first people explored the cave more than 4,500 years ago, as evidenced by mummy finds and various utensils of human origin, such as clothing, torches, ropes and pottery. The oldest and best preserved mummy, called Lost John, is estimated to be 2,300 years old.
Discovered by the whites at the end of the 18th century, the cave was used in the following years mainly as a source of saltpetre for the production of gunpowder, created by the excretion of countless bats.
Tour of the Mammoth Cave
If you want to avoid the tourist crowds and are not claustrophobic, you can take a 6-hour tour, partly on all fours, through muddy tunnels and narrow passages through the fascinating underground world.
Besides the gigantic underground spaces and the bizarre limestone formations, there are also some stalactites and gypsum crystal forms to marvel at. As is usual in caves, animals without eyesight live here, such as the cave blind fish and some small animals, such as worms, beetles and crickets or crayfish. Of the bats that used to be so numerous, only a few colonies remain.
Adventure under day
You are not allowed to explore the caves on your own, but you can find out about guided tours at the visitor centre. Depending on the season, there are 3-5 different hikes every day, which are accompanied by rangers.
The "Frozen Niagara Tour" takes you past spectacular rock formations, offers a glimpse into one of the seemingly bottomless shafts, the so-called domes, and leads up to a metre-high waterfall-like limestone structure - hence the name.
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The "Historic Tour" leads to the old saltpetre mining facilities and an underground river.
The "Half Day Tour" is the longest and most strenuous tour (6 hours), but it offers the most comprehensive insight into the diverse cave system of Mammoth Cave. The tour takes you through extensive passages and giant chambers as well as through narrow loopholes and low crawlways. The hardships are rewarded with chambers full of stalactites and flowers made of plaster, metre-deep domes and gigantic stone halls.
Tip: The temperature in Mammoth Cave is a relatively warm 13°C for a cave system. So be sure to bring a jumper or jacket and sturdy shoes for a visit even on hot days. Advantage: the 13°C are also available in winter, when the caves are not so well visited!
Daylight walks
Fresh-air fanatics can take a canoe or paddle-boat trip on the Green River above the caves, from where deer, raccoons and plenty of birds can always be seen on the banks and numerous species of fish underwater (fishing allowed!), or take the hiking trails of the above-ground karst landscape through funnel-shaped sinkholes, peaceful swamps, bubbling springs and splashing waterfalls.
Due to the small size of the park, there are only a few hiking trails that start from the visitor centre and are easy to walk in one day. The trail to First Creek Lake and the Echo River Trail are particularly good for bird watching. The two short nature trails, Cave Island and Cedar Sink Trail, are also extremely informative.
The vegetation escaped clear-cutting due to the establishment of the national park and has since recovered to such an extent that almost the entire park area is covered with mixed forest.
Attention campers: Some animals, especially tree squirrels and chipmunks, are extremely trusting and have little respect for food that does not belong to them. Raccoons and skunks also roam the area at night in search of food and may not even stop at tents.