Mammoth Cave National Park

This year for Labor Day, we decided to visit Mammoth Cave National Park.  I have a goal (a "bucket list" of sorts) to visit every National Park during my lifetime.  For me, nothing quite compares to the experience of exploring beautiful places and landscapes.  There is something about the National Parks that makes me feel as if I have come home. 

Over the years, we have lived reasonably close to Mammoth Cave, but never "had the time" to visit.  We are starting to recognize, however, that we need to make time to explore new places, have more fun and deepen our relationships rather than let our busy schedules determine when or if we will have time to prioritize our lives.  As a good friend of ours often says, when our kids grow up they aren't going to say, "Hey Dad, remember that time when we all stayed home to clean up the basement together!"

Initially, the boys had mixed emotions about our plans to visit the cave.  We woke them up early so that we would have plenty of time to arrive in time for our scheduled tour and still have some time at the end of the tour to hang out in the park.  The drive was easier than we had anticipated, so we arrived at the park well before our scheduled tour.

The cave tour that we chose involves a short bus ride to one of the back entrances to the cave.  We waited under a pavillion that was right next to the big green buses that would eventually take us to the entrance.  It was all we could do to keep Austin away from the buses while we waited.  Every morning, he watches his brothers climb onto the bus as they head off for school, so he has become quite fascniated with buses.  He was so excited once he realized that we were going to ride the bus.  Clearly, the bus ride was the highlight of the day for Austin.

Much to Austin's dismay, the bus quickly reached our destination.  After a brief introduction to the cave, including all of the necessary safety precautions, we began our descent into the cave.  This "back door" to Mammoth Cave was discovered in the 1920's and quickly became a competing entrepreneurial enterprise to the older and much larger Historic Entrance prior to the cave's adoption into the National Park system.  The descent into the cave begins with a trip down a stainless steel stair case that winds its way down through several giant shafts that were created over thousands of years as water made its way through the limestone.  It was fun listening to the boys (who were behind me, but in front of Brooke) as they called out warnings to Brooke.  "Watch your head Mom!  This landing is really slippery Mom!"  They were all very concerned.

We made it safely down the staircase, through several narrow passageways and into one of several large rooms where we paused to listen to our guide as he explained how the cave was formed, what type of wildlife inhabit the cave and some of the history behind the cave's discovery and continued exploration.  At one point during the tour, the ranger turned off the lights.  As soon as the darkness covered our eyes, I felt several small arms grabbing at my arms and legs.  I smiled as I thought of their earlier bravado on our way down the staircase.  Needless to say, the boys were all relieved when the lights came back on.

The tour ends near a flowstone formation called Frozen Niagara.  Here we were able to see several stalagtites, stalagmites and columns that were formed over tens of thousands of years.  This area of the cave was one of the the highlights of the tour for the boys.  Tanner especially was eagerly anticipating this area of the cave.  I was impressed by the variety of formations and geology that we were able to see on our relatively short tour.  Brooke and I both commented that the tour seemed much shorter than two hours.

After lunch, we headed over to the Historic Entrance to the cave.  This entrance is much larger than the New Entrance.  Aside from the size of this giant hole in the earth, the first thing that we noticed as we approached the Historic Entrance was the cool breeze that constantly flows from within the cave.  As we walked further into the entrance, the breeze became a steady rush of cool air that would rival even the most sophisticated air conditioning system.

At the end of the day, we were all very glad that we made the effort to see the cave (no more mixed emotions).  Sure, we didn't get everything done on our to-do list, but most of the things on that list probably need to be reprioritized anyway.