Mammoth Cave National Park

Visited: Sept 2017

Nearby city: Cave City, KY; Bowling Green, KY

Mammoth Cave is by far the longest cave in the entire world. Almost 400 miles have been mapped, and new passageways are being discovered every year. The next longest cave in the world (Jewel Cave in South Dakota) has about 150 miles mapped. So clearly, the name is well deserved.

Native Americans first explored the cave over 4,000 years ago. During the War of 1812 saltpeter was mined from the cave, which was used to make gunpowder. As more people learned about the gigantic cave, people traveled from all over to explore and tour the cave. Most of the early tour guides were also slaves. The most famous of these slave tour guides, Stephen Bishop, was one of the first to map the cave and he named many of its features and rooms. In 1941, the cave was designated as a National Park.

Before you visit, go to the Park's website and find out what tour you want to go on. Most of the tours need to be purchased in advance, but there are a few select tours that must be purchased at the Visitor Center the same day of your visit, the most popular of these are the Mammoth Passage and Frozen Niagara Tours.

We took the Mammoth Passage tour. It starts at the largest natural entrance to the cave, also known as the Historic Entrance. The entrance is a short walk from the Visitor Center.

The massive natural entrance is beautiful and impressive.

The main corridor from the natural entrance leads to a large underground cavern known as the Rotunda. You will see remains of the saltpeter mines and Indian artifacts. This is a good tour to explore the unique and distinctive large passageways of Mammoth Cave. It's very impressive, it's also a fun, short, and easy tour.

a small bat hanging out on the ceiling

saltpeter mines

We also did the Domes & Dripstones tour. This is a good tour, it's about a mile and half and it combines the New Entrance and Frozen Niagara portions of the cave. One thing you'll notice about Mammoth Cave is the lack of typical cave formations such as stalagmites and stalactites. Mammoth Cave is very dry. It is un-decorated and plain. This is because there is a hard, thick layer of sandstone that covers the top of the cave. The layer acts as a cap over the cave, that prevents water from seeping in and creating formations. 

The one portion of the cave that does have major formations is the Frozen Niagara. In that portion of the cave, the sandstone cap dissolved so water has seeped into the limestone strata. Make sure to do a tour of Frozen Niagara, it is a highlight of the cave. The tour starts by descending down hundreds of stairs.

heading down

the sandstone "cap" of the cave

the ranger highlighted some very small stalactites on the roof

Tourists used smoke from their candles to leave their signature on the roof of the cave.

At the end of the tour we got to the Frozen Niagara portion.

This formation was HUGE. It looked like a massive waterfall.

Mammoth Cave, though not as pretty as others caves we've been to, is very impressive and so massive it must be seen to be believed. There are some activities on the surface as well such as hiking, cycling, and paddling. For more info: https://www.nps.gov/maca/index.htm

Craters of the Moon National Monument

Visited: April 2014

Nearby town: Arco, ID

This seemingly alien, lunar landscape in central Idaho is one of the best preserved flood basalt areas in the continental United States. A flood basalt is a result of a gigantic series of volcanic eruptions that covers a vast area of land with basalt lava. The eruptions that created Craters of the Moon National Monument occurred as recently as 2,000 years ago, but most of the lava flows in the park occurred around 15,000 years ago. There are more than 25 volcanic cones in the park. A 53 mile long weakness in the Earth's crust, known as the Great Rift Zone which is part of the larger Snake River Plain volcanic zone, makes for the best examples of volcanic geology in the US (outside of Hawaii).

The National Monument, created in 1924 and later expanded in 2000, is very unique and is well worth a detour. Most visitors stay a couple of hours to do the Loop Drive and some short hikes that highlight the main features of the park (basaltic lava, lava tubes, and caves).

Start your adventure at the Visitor Center along Highway 20/26/93. Then take the loop road. Our first stop was North Crater Flow Trail. This short walk is very enjoyable and a good preview of the park. If you only have time to do one trail/nature walk, make it this one.

These large cinder crags were very unique and impressive

The next stop are some excellent examples of spatter cones, a low, steep-sided hill consisting of welded lava fragments. 

spatter cones

Next up is Broken Top loop hike.

Another major highlight along the Loop Drive is the Indian Tunnel, a great lava tube to explore. A lava tube is created when flowing lava moves beneath the hardened surface of a lava flow, leaving a hollow, cylindrical cave. There are also some other caves you can go into, Boy Scout, Beauty, and Dewdrop Cave. We went briefly into Boy Scout cave.

Boy Scout cave was very icy inside

Craters of the Moon is an easy park to explore in half a day to a full day. There are not too many places in the US to see such examples of volcanic geology. More info here: https://www.nps.gov/crmo/index.htm