Mammoth Cave National Park

Saturday June 27, 2015

I woke up early with lungs full of secondhand carcinogens from the overpriced premium Super 8 motel room.  Enjoyed a long shower as the family started to rumble and grumble and move about. Like I said earlier, we made our money back on GT's 'free continental breakfast'. I think we each had a couple of cinnabons some oatmeal, yogurt, and loaded up on available fruit at the bar 'to go'. I didn't in the least feel bad about it either.  I do remember GT asking if candy 'tasted different' in Canada.  I was sure to let him know that we'll test that theory in a few days.  Today was the official first day of our trip. 

Since we woke up so early (me in a coughing fit) we were able to do a little 'splorin around the rinky dink towns on the way to the Caves.  Jen found a river walk in the area of Bowling Green, KY near WKU.  The starting point was an old train bridge from 1915 which has now become a rail/trail multi=use path.  We didn't have too much time to walk the whole trail but we were able to snap a few shots of this cool place...

After getting our legs stretched out with a short walk, it was back on the country two-lane roads to check out the KY farmland and small towns along the way.  The outskirts of Bowling Green were beautiful rolling hills of soft Kentucky grass and corn fields.  We really wanted to stop at a dairy farm along the way, but it didn't open until 11AM and we had an 11:15 Domes and Dripstones tour already booked and paid for.

We got the park a little over 90 minutes early.  I found that we originally had our trip planned for 11:15 and tried to see if tickets were available still for the 10:30 tour.  No such luck.  The tours sell out very quickly here in the summer and most tours accommodate about 100 or so people. 

The caves were incredible, as was the tour and our tour guide. Photos cannot do it justice.  This place is massive with over 330 miles of caves and the National Park only opens a very small amout of them to the public. We all learned a LOT about how the caves are formed over kajillions of years, and how sinkholes form, and the vast amount of sinkholes in the KY area alone.  We learned about early cliff explorers and how some lost their lives.  One of the best parts of the tour occurred in a room where everyone sat down, the cracked limestone overhead to learn about the caves from the guide.  She asked everyone if they wanted to tour all 300+ miles of the tour and asked everyone to be quiet for about 10 seconds.  Once you could hear a pin drop, ALL the lights went out and there was the most amazing form of nothingness I think i'd ever experienced.  "THAT, was the exploration of all 330 miles of the cave"  a very cool experience, until of course, a bustling throaty voice in a local neck tone stated, 'yah, it's quiet in heaw'.  Just a wealth of information on caves.  Another tidbit is that it's about 50-55 degrees once inside.  Glad we all had our raincoats.  When I took this picture, we were at the entrance to the historic cave.  As we walked by, we all felt the rush of air from below, and thought someone left the door open on an air conditioned building.  

There are biking trails galore in this park. Hike a bike trails, off road trails, paved trails.  I was trying to take everything in and was a little bummed that we were going to Indiana and not spending the night there. I will file this trip under discovery mission and the Lutz family will definitely go back there for a long weekend.  

Back to the car after the tour ended and a quick visit to the slave graveyard nearby.

The trip to Indiana was all I-65 through Louisville.  There is a lot of construction on the road in Louisville but I guess we hit it at the right time and drove right through.  Jen read a little bit on our next destination from "1000 places to see before you die".  I wanted to stay in Indiana and we chose Brown County State Park originally but they only allow two night camping on weekends, so we stayed nearby in a cabin at ExploreBrownCounty--ziplining and atv's and, of couse mountain biking. The cabin has 10 twin bunk beds, tetherball, hot showers (solar-powered), fishing, etc.  Pretty cool place with a lot of shaded camp areas.  We were sure to stop at the quick mart in Gnaw Bone, Indiana to grab recommended dinner of fried pork tenderloin and loaded the car with gas too.  Great chow.

Once we got situated we checked out the park a little bit, hung out on the docks, did some explorin, then headed over to visit Brown County State Park. This place is huge with two lakes, abundant walking trails and many things to do.  We got there a little bit late so a lot of the learning facilities were closed but there were some very nice views.  I can only imagine this place in the fall.  One of the highlights of the park was the Ogle Lake trail and climbing the fire town (the cabin was closed but you could climb up it to the top, which we all did.  

Afterward, we went a couple miles down the road to explore Brown county a little more and visited the city of Nashville, IN.  Quaint little town with a lot of shops.  We got some much needed ice and checked out a new brew from Upland brewing company--Firefly IPA and called it a night.  We hope to tour a local brewery in Nashville tomorrow and then it'll be on the road to the Michigan.