Jerry Bransford at the Self Guided Mammoth Cave Discovery Tour Mammoth Cave National Park

We stopped by Mammoth Cave AGAIN the other day...  We love the place.

We ended up doing the Self Guided Discovery Tour as we had heard that Jerry Bransford would be helping out on this tour!  I had actually talked to Jerry before, and even traded emails with him, but I really wanted to see him in the cave, guiding, as members of his family have been doing since probably the late 1830s!  His family members were original guides to the cave.

So, we bought tickets for the self guided tour, and walked the slope down to the cave entrance.

The tour started at 10 (though this tour was a bit informal and self guided....  you could start the tour really any time you wanted to).  We got there right when they opened up and a couple of friendly young guides went over basic cave rules before letting us in.

We walked down into the cave and through the doors to get in.  We made our way to the saltpeter mining area at the front of the cave.

Jerry Bransford was there offering interpretation.

Jerry told the cave visitors about saltpeter production and how the cave was used for that during the War of 1812.  He gave a brief history on people visiting and exploring the cave.  He did briefly mention his own legacy, being a 5th generation guide, but he kept his talk about the cave.

We chatted with Jerry briefly but he had more visitors coming by.  We went further into the cave to see what else was on display.

We found an area where shoes, torches, and other man made/used items were preserved and displayed.

We walked around, at our own pace, and enjoyed casually exploring the cave.  We had actually been through this area many times before on other tours, but this was a fun way to see it again.

We were actually in the cave for well over an hour,
but we could have stayed longer.  The guides told us that people can do the self guided tour in as little as half an hour if they are quick, of they may read everything and take their time, which would probably take an hour and a half.

This would be a great tour for an elderly person or even a family with kids, since you can move at your own pace, and take as much time as you want.  This would also be a great tour for a traveler passing through the area on a road trip who had a limited period of time.

We ended up catching up with Jerry after the tour.  He is a very nice and friendly person who was great to talk to in general.  In my books, he is an exciting person with a VERY direct link to the past that really no one else does.  It is amazing that he is continuing his family tradition and it was a treat getting to see him in action as a guide!