Mammoth Cave

When I was in elementary school, my cousin asked me to go to Mammoth Cave with him one Saturday. This was overwhelming to me at the time. Any trip more than 30 minutes from Owensboro was a big deal. And this was Mammoth Cave!
I would later go there with high school friends on weekend trips. I went once on a very snowy February day with my friend Brent. It seemed like we had the entire park to ourselves.
Since moving back to Kentucky, I have visited there again several times.

The Cave
The cave itself is literally unbelievable. Seriously. There are around 365 miles of discovered cave there at this time. I have heard that 1000 miles of cave are assumed to be there. I was talking to a caver once who told me that to get to a point in the cave where you could start exploring the unmapped area, you would have to travel into the cave for about 1 week!
There is a little part of me thinking about how cool it would be to set up some sort of constant exploration system in there. Maybe a relay group constantly bringing supplies in, utilizing supply storage places. Obviously, if someone got sick in there, that could cause a lot of problems.
When I travel I love going to show caves. I have heard people say that seeing one cave is just like seeing another. I guess that is true, but it is so cool just being in a cave.
Mammoth Cave, in many ways, is similar to other show caves you have seen before, except it is the biggest cave... anywhere!
The tours can get crowded. This might be my biggest complaint about Mammoth Cave. Obviously there is a big demand to get in and see the place, but I do wish the tours were broken up more. The last tour I was on there sold out at 120 people. It was very hard to get close to the ranger durring the tour to hear what was being discussed. The tours can be exhausting too. Seriously. They are pretty open about this though. There is a lot of walking involved in most of the tours.

I would like to see more of the cave utilized. There are 365 mapped miles! I am assuming well less than 10 are being used in the tours. I would love to take a tour to a section opened to the public for the 1st time. Also, I think the park is neglecting some serious tourist $$ by not having some sort of "overnight in the cave" type tour.
The visitor center is pretty much a short uphill walk from the caves main entrance. The cave used to do the thing where they would take your groups photo in front of the entrance and then sell them to you. I don't think they have done this for some time. I have seen some of these older b&w photos on ebay and they all look very dated. The entrance is still there though, and its fun to make a comparison of current photos to the older photos.
I love the rangers here. I have never had one dodge a question. If they don't know, they will find someone and get back to you.
Mummies have been found in the cave. One ranger told me once that one was discovered, and actually put back in the cave, but only 2 people know where it was put back.

The Park
Even though there are many people there each day, the park seems secluded. The trails and roads seem to not be travelled much. Even though the parking lot in front of the visitor center is full, and the tours are often crowded, you pass few other cars on the roads.
I was there one evening in October driving around, and there were deer everywhere. We pulled over and just watched them. It was fun watching them continuously stream out of the woods, across the road and walk off. A few more would then come along to replace them. They would walk right by the car too.
The Mammoth Cave Hotel is pretty much right behind the visitor center (maybe a few minutes walk). There are a couple of places to set and eat there. There is a generic fast food place which is very tasty and economical for a food place at a park.

The area
The area around the cave is worth a trip on its own. You aren't far from Bowling Green. Driving around the park is just a nice drive too.

I am a huge fan of "Big Mike's". Big Mike's is an oversized gift shop. The gift shops at the Cave's main building and in the hotel have a fun slection of postcards, books and patches. Big Mike's goes a step further. Easily a roadside attraction in itself, Big Mike's has a replica dinosaur skull on display, and a funhouse. It's a buck to go through the funhouse. They've never been too demanding that you pay the dollar. Make sure you do though, and tip your funhouse tour guide. I think I will need to write about Big Mikes seperately.