Road Tripping in the Beast

The trek home with the Beast was almost 800 miles through the eastern Midwest (I think I just made up a region but work with me.) Since we were on the road an adventure was in order so we planned a stop at Mammoth Cave, Kentucky.

Mammoth Cave is a national park surrounded by middle Kentucky enterprise. We passed up all the yard art and headed straight for the cave. What a cool place! We signed up for the guided River Styx tour which took us to the lowest part of the cave that tours go -- 360 feet under ground. Now might be the time to mention slight claustrophobia. Actually before the tour might have been the time...

We join up with Ranger Jeff and we're off to see the cave. We walk down the hill on a steamy morning to the mouth of the cave where the temperature drops precipitously. The cave is 50 something degrees year round. Feels good in August. Ranger Jeff informs us that the cave was rediscovered after a 2000 year hiatus by a bear hunter who chased a wounded bear into it. Can we say dumbass? Seriously, it's 1700 something so there aren't critical care centers on just every corner, it's dark in there and that bear is pissed...

Anywho, the cave is amazing and has been being toured since the 1820s or so. It's creepy enough down there with electric lights and a cleared path. Hard to imagine going down there with a torch and crawling over rubble to see the deep dark place, but people did it. I bet they'd buy stuff off eBay if they were alive today.

We walked through 2.5 miles of cave. More than 350 miles of cave have been mapped and they think as much as 300 more miles might yet be unexplored. That's lots o' cave. Our tour was pretty cream puff for the first couple of hours -- pretty wide pathways, ceilings low in some places, but not too bad. Then we came to this little area that was both narrow and so low you had to bend over quite a bit. I'm right behind Ranger Jeff and about halfway through this part, I start thinking I should have asked more questions about his credentials. I'm also thinking a diet is in order. I'm also wondering about back up generators for the lights. Yep, I should have asked a few more questions, the story of my life.

It really was a cool tour and I'd recommend it. The park is beautiful with miles of hiking trails and lakes; I'd love to camp there. We saw deer and wild turkey and just outside the park you could browse the yard art displays for days or play some putt putt. All the elements of the perfect vacation...