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Mammoth Cave - Kentucky
Descriptive:
With over 300 miles of charted passageways, Mammoth Cave is believed to be the largest cave in the world. And it's still growing: streams deep underground continue to shape new passageways.
Although beautiful countryside is to be had above ground, with Green River winding 25 miles through the Park, most of the scenery is, of course, underground. The cave openings are large enough to walk into and one is quickly plunged into a world of pitch blackness. Although lights or lanterns are provided by the Park, there is nothing blacker than being in the middle of a cave and cutting out your light source. No light filters in. Whatsoever. It is black black. Try it.
The "climate" of a cave is nearly constant year round, remaining 54 degrees Farenheit and 87 percent humidity with very little fluctuation. At nearby Sloane Valley, another extensive system of caves in Kentucky, a local has made use of this fact extremely well: he built a greenhouse over the mouth of a cave, building a vent to its mouth at the bottom of a pit. Thanks to his cleverness, his greenhouse is warmer in the winter and cooler in the summer, and his plants do extremely well.
Geography/terrain:
The tours are guided and the paths are well-worn and safe, with railings and stairs installed where necessary. Just the same, gym shoes or hiking boots are recommended.
The terrain is rocky with chambers and passageways rich with travertine, which is the gypsum content of the limestone leached out slowly over the years to form stalagmites, stalactites, and cascading flowstone.
For the certified caver, more athletic trips are available involving strenuous climbing, squeezing through tight passageways, and getting downright dirty. For more information, write the Superintendent, Mammoth Cave National Park, Mammoth Cave, KY, 42259; telephone number 502-758-2251.
Activities:
Various tours are led into the cave throughout the day. On the Historic Trip the remnants of a crude but effective mining operation can be seen in the Rotunda.
Eat lunch at the famous underground Snowball Dining Room.
Historical:
On the Historic Trip you will be able to view the leathery, but surprisingly intact, remains of Lost John. Lost John, as the mummy is called, is the remains of a man apparently crushed to death by a falling boulder within the cave. The even humidity in the cave caused his body to dry out slowly and evenly, resisting bacterial decay.
Also on the Historic Trip, you will come upon a small village. Of the twelve wood and stone cottages, only the ruins of the two stone ones remain. The village was built by Dr. John Croghan who, convinced that the even conditions of the caverns would aide in the cure of tuberculosis, packed up twelve of his patients for a year-long "retreat" inside the caves. Well, two of his patients died, and records indicate that all the survivors were worse off than when they'd entered. The experiement was aborted after approximately six months.
