Mother's Day @ Mammoth Cave Nat'l Park

New, hi-tech Cave Tour Center

Our first day ever in Mammoth Cave Nat'l Park.  We came here having been told it has good hiking/biking trails (and horse trails).  Seems it's all true.  Lots of horse trailers around the area.  Terrain similar to Shenandoah Nat'l Park - you start down and walk back up.  We're not cavers, so no pics of the cave.


Mammoth Cave Nat'l Park is dissected by the Green River and to access some of the trails, you either take a small ferry or drive many, many miles around the park.  We got in about 2.5 miles of walking.  The Green River banks & Cave Island showed significant signs of damage from high and fast water.  Wouldn't impress anyone from Alabama right now, though.

The park is making a lot of improvements.  The Cave Tour Center is similar to what we've seen in Yellowstone.  The floor plan of the future Visitor's Center looks as if it's modeled from what we've seen as the floor plan for the Old Faithful Visitor Center.

Tomorrow, we ride the Mammoth Cave Railroad Hike and Bike Trail and tour the campground.

Sample of the trials we walked.

No walk around Mammoth Cave is complete without visiting old cave entrances

This is a sample of the trails we walked today.  For more pictures, visit David's facebook page.











Caves are everywhere around here.  Most of the springs are really where underground rivers break above ground.  Apparently, there's a big problem with the White Nose fungus affecting the bats. Caves (like this one) are not only blocked off, but signage warns visitors that they are in violation of the endangered species act if they enter any cave without appropriate permission.