Meandering Around Mammoth

Mammoth Cave, KY – April 10-12, 2014

After last night’s storm, we woke up to a beautiful morning. The sun is out, Big Guy is in a secluded location, a local squirrel is keeping a watchful eye over our campsite, and a robin is teasing us into thinking spring is here.

Being out of shape, the “Domes and Dripstones” tour left us feeling like a day off was in order. So we agreed that we’d no tours today and instead meander over to some of the nearby communities. EJ spied this picture book farm along the way.

And we found this little hideaway sitting in the woods.

According to the App “Where to Eat”, Horse Cave had a rock shop coffee shop combination. We found it and the for sale sign in the front window. We continue to wander around from city (town?) to city before we found an authentic “locals” restaurant. And they had curly fries!! On the way back to the campground we found this old stone structure.

Feeling pretty spunky after sitting in the car for a couple of hours, we thought it would be a good idea to stretch our legs a little. Forgetting about how much ours legs protested yesterday, we were feeling pretty good and decided we needed some more exercise.

Deer sightings are common in Mammoth Park. The one on the left looks pretty hungry.

The Green River runs through the Park and used to have numerous ferries owned by private individuals that charged a toll to cross the river. This is the only remaining operational ferry in the park. It only handles 2 cars at a time, is held in place by cables and is a side wheeler.

Next to the relief station was a short trail to where an underground river surfaced to join the Green River. It’s called Echo River Spring.

The Park is pretty serious about unauthorized entry into the caves. Notice this entrance has a steel grate covering it.

EJ serenely surveys the River Styx, another underground river that surfaces to join the Green River.

All these hikes have led us lower and lower to the bottom of the valley where the Green River flows. And as we all know what goes down, must come up, one way or another. We scour the map for a less challenging way back to the top, but there is none. We’re not feeling so spunky now.

After we struggle back to the top, we decide there’s just enough energy left for one more short hike. The walk to Sand Cave was a short one and it was via a nice level wooden boardwalk. This cave is famous, or infamous, for being the death place of Floyd Collins. On January 30, 1925 Floyd was searching for a new entrance to the underground network of caves when he crawled into a very small passageway and got stuck by a cave in. Rescue efforts were futile and he died of exposure. Two months later, his body was recovered.

EJ and I decided that we wouldn’t be doing any unauthorized cave exploring.