Mammoth Cave NP
Up early to travel north into Kentucky to visit Mammoth Cave National Park. The 100 mile drive traversed rolling hills of beautiful fall colors. Arriving at the park in time to make the first two hour tour at 10 AM, we entered the Historic entrance, passing under a waterfall. This tour was two miles of walking through a variety of caverns and passages; some areas had steel grates, others paved, still others along the natural floor of the cave. Some of the passages such as Fat Man’s Misery and Tall Man’s Misery were tight squeezes. Frankly, I have no idea how some of the larger tourists made it through; we tried to stay ahead of them just in case!
The tour ended right on time so we lunched in the truck and had a power nap. The 2PM tour was another two hour tour only covering 3/4 mile starting from the “New” Entrance and exiting out another shaft. The difference was this tour was over 500 stairs, starting from the New Entrance we descended 285 steps right off the bat (pun intended). This was the Drips and Domes tour having many sculptures of layered up minerals.
Unfortunately, the bat population has been decimated by a fungus known as “white nose disease” to about 20% of their previous numbers. Everyone exiting the cave must walk over a pad wet with a chemical solution to mitigate carrying the fungus into other colonies.