Mammoth Cave is the largest cave system in the world. At over 420+ miles of mapped caverns, this cave is enormous! With cave tours, hiking and miles of biking trails, Mammoth Cave National Park is an ideal place to take kids.
Arriving from Great Smoky Mountain National Park in Tennessee to excellent weather. At a balmy 80+ degree Fahrenheit day the cave is always a cool 54 degrees Fahrenheit inside.
Cave Tours
With over 10+ cave tours to choose from , there is an option for everyone to exploring underground (including Wheelchair accessible)! 1 tour per day is all you can reasonably expect with kids. With only 3 nights in the park, we managed two awesome tours.
Make your reservations early, Cave tours cost around $10-15 per person and fill up quickly. You can reserve up to 3 months in advance. My advice, is to reserve a cave tour as early as possible, the cancellation fee is only $1. If it’s fully booked out, you can always purchase a day pass into the cave and go on a self guided tour.
For more adventurous cavers, an extreme 6 hour “Wild Cave Tour” is offered. This tour is not for kids. The park provides the coveralls, helmet and light. However, the author forgot to bring lace up hiking boots so sadly did not meet the entry requirements.
Historic Tour
The Historic tour takes you through an incredible variety of cave formations and informs you of the caves history. The tour takes you through caverns can be as large as concert halls and passages so narrow you have to crawl through them. With over 540 stairs to climb, this tour not for the faint of heart!
History of Mammoth Cave
Mammoth Cave’s mark on American history is significant. In the 1800s, it is mined for it’s saltpeter in the making of gunpowder that supplied soldiers during the War of 1812.
Tours have been going on continuously for over 200 years! The most famous tour guide of Mammoth Cave is Stephen Bishop. He began guiding visitors at age 17 in 1838. No one person knew the cave better than him.
He is also an African American during a period when slavery is prevalent in Kentucky. That is above ground. Below ground, you respect and obey Stephen, as your ability to get out of the cave depends squarely on him!
Ancient History of Mammoth Cave
Archeological evidence of prehistoric peoples exploring over 10 miles of the cave 4,000 years ago. Secret areas of the cave off limit to tourists protecting ancient tombs and artifacts to preserve.
Geology of Mammoth Cave
Mammoth cave formed in what is called a karst topography. Over 350 million years ago, Kentucky sat on top of a large river delta flowing into an ancient sea. Over the years, the layers of sand pile up in the delta harden to form the sandstone that makes up the cave today.
After hardened, water with carbonic acid (seltzer water), erode the sandstone to form the cave. Rainwater flows into the cave system through the sink holes forming underground rivers. Large sink holes are scattered throughout valley including the one that formed under the Corvette museum as recently as 2014!
Cleaveland Avenue Tour
The Cleaveland Avenue tour is about 2 miles of walking underground. Starting with a bus ride from Mammoth Cave Visitor Center to a locked man-made cave (Carmichael) entrance not to far from the visitor center, it descends down a stairwell into Cleaveland Avenue.
Cleaveland Avenue tour is a tour about the history of the tours at Mammoth Cave. About 2 miles total, it takes you along the original path made by the Civilian Conservation Corp (CCC) in the 1930’s through sparkling gypsum formations. This tour is more intimate than the Historic Tour.
Our favorite part of the tour is when they turn the lights off and it is pitch black. The ranger guide asks everyone to wave their hand in front of their face, “If you can see your hand, you’re hallucinating!”.
Imagine yourself in the 1800’s and the lantern lights blew out. No wonder people get lost in caves forever.
Hiking at Mammoth Cave National Park
The Mammoth Cave Campground is situated walking distance from the Mammoth Cave Visitor Center. There are several nearby hikes that are within walking distance.
Green Bluffs River Trail
At total of about 2 miles, the Green Bluffs River Trail to the River Styx Spring Trail takes you along the Green River, passes a near by spring, and has wildlife (we saw deer and a frog!). This is a great adventure hike for kids.
As we close our visit to Mammoth Cave National Park and our Sibling Summer Trip. We are left with a few learnings:
- Sleeping – The King Bird Camper’s maximum capacity is definitely 7 people. How did we pick our camper? See here. 2 kids sleep on the ground, 2 kids in bunk beds, 1 adult on the dinette and 2 adults in a full size bed make for some tight quarters. Yet having the cousins on board doubles the fun for the kids.
- Meals – During meal time, the only meal that everyone can agree on is Hamburgers. However, having the generator on hand is crucial to heating up mac and cheese, chicken noodle soup or spagettio’s on the fly.
- Mosquito Shelter – if you leave the Bug Shelter unzipped, all the bugs move in, and have a hard time escaping. Unless you plan on trapping all the bugs at the campsite in the shelter and stand outside of it, you need to keep it zipped up.
With these learnings and five new Jr. Ranger badges for our collection (including a bonus Angler badge and Cave Scientist badge), our Summer Sibling Trip comes to a close.
Thanks for stopping by and watch for more adventures in the future!
