Mammoth Cave National Park is the longest, not largest, but longest cave system in the entire world. I went there in July of 2024 and boy was it a hot one in the forests of Kentucky. I went with 2 of my friends from high school and we went with no real plan and that was definitely not the right idea but we will get to why later.
The only reason you should ever visit Mammoth Cave National Park is if you want to visit every National Park, you are really into caves, or like me, you drove to Nashville for a week and were in the area so why not visit it. Mammoth Cave is not really around much. It is kind of in its own, I mean what else is there to do in Kentucky besides visit Louisville and eat some of their greasy ass fried chicken.
If you do go to Mammoth Cave National Park, I would highly, highly recommend that you look ahead, and book a tour of the cave. It will cost about 20$ but trust me, it is worth it. If you do not get a tour of the cool parts of the cave such as the lake, or places where you need to be accompanied by a Park Ranger, then you will be stuck in the main, big part of the cave that all the sucker losers who do not plan ahead like myself go to. This part is still cool don't get me wrong, but it is just rocks and what not. Nothing too crazy going on.
The cave is absolutely massive. I am really dumb, and I asked a Park Ranger why they call it Mammoth Cave and she looked at me like I was a mentally handicapped 8 year old and paused for a little too long just to spout out "uhhhhh because of it's mammoth size". Listen I am not the brightest bulb in the bunch, but I thought you know maybe they found a woolly mammoth in there at one point or something or maybe the guy that found it's last name was mammoth. But apparently my stupid questions have the same affect to the people in Kentucky as they do in my homeland.
Another cool part about Mammoth Cave is that not only is the cave a protected piece of land, but so is the land above it. There are some really cool hikes and trails to go on. I unfortunately was not able to do any of them because we were only swinging by and did not have time to do all of that. One thing to remember is that caves always stay at the same temperature year round. I did not think of this when I went into the cave in shorts and a t-shirt and the cave stays at a cool 54° Fahrenheit year round.
If you do go to the main part of the cave you will see the Calcium Nitrate mines that were used in the war of 1812. Calcium Nitrate was huge during the war because Britain stopped selling it to us and Mammoth Cave had a large supply of it. Calcium Nitrate is used in explosives and gun powder. And yes, all of these pictures were taken by yours truly.
All in all Mammoth Cave National Park is really only for my diehard cave fans out there. If you have been in one cave, you have been to them all. This is one of the few National Parks east of the Mississippi River and was within an hour drive from where I was staying for the week. If you’re thinking this will be like going to Yosemite or Yellowstone, I am here to tell you that it wont be.
That is todays Tea, with T
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