Carter Caves Kentucky

If you are in Kentucky and you want to see a cave, obviously, you are going to go to Mammoth Cave, that is a given.

I really like Carter Caves too. It does have a very different feel. Plus, it is towards the eastern part of the state so it really doesn't compete with Mammoth the way some of the other caves in Kentucky (inside of the Mammoth Cave region) do.

Carter Caves seems a bit more secluded. I love the curvy mountain drive getting to the area. In my books, it is very relaxing.

We took the Cascade Cave tour on a recent Saturday morning. Our tour group was maybe around 20 people, which made it a nice, casual tour. Our tour guide was casual too, pointing out the formations and all, but not going on and on. To his credit and my relief, this may have been my first trip inside of a show cave where all of the lights were NOT turned off to show total darkness. It is fun the first time or two.

A huge bonus on our tour was bats! They were right in front of us! They were just hanging around, sleeping. We saw several close up. Check out my photo!

This tour starts out in one cave area. You go inside, and walk towards a pond room that is very attractive. There is water coming in from right outside of the cave. Above the water are some big finger like formations coming from the ceiling area.

You walk past the pond area and go outside of the cave. You walk past the outside part of the pond, so you can see where the pond water goes inside the cave. From here, you walk into another cave area. After checking out some more formations, you backtrack, and get another chance to see everything.

After leaving that cave, you are taken to yet another one, and at the end of a short trail inside of the cave, you find a small water fall. It is something, but it is in a small, tight area. You will appreciate it though.

I did read that the area has 30 miles of hiking trails. I might make it a personal goal to cover all of them. The area is just amazing. I did walk a little on one trail. It had that great, green, outdoor smell.

I mentioned bats earlier, and I should take a moment to mention that the park has closed off some of it's cave tours. They are trying to be cautious because of White-Nose Syndrome. Here is a link to some information:

http://www.fws.gov/northeast/white_nose.html



Reading about White-Nose Syndrome really scares me. It seems that many bats are not surviving because of this mysterious disease. In fact, the more I read about this subject, the grimmer it looks for bat populations. This is heart breaking stuff, and I hope people are aware of this crisis.

Carter Caves seems to be doing their part in keeping an eye on the little guys, while still keeping a couple of tours going.