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Happy Labor Day everyone! I spent the awesome labor day weekend in Mammoth Cave, KY and Nashville, TN. It was a wonderful trip and I like both places a lot! In terms of photos, it's so hard to take photos in the cave since it's too dark and tripod is not allowed. I had to sacrifice the ISO to make the shutter speed fast. Now all the photos are having a lot of noise :( Anyway, I will try my best to process them.
There is much wildlife activity that takes place in the hardwood forests and biomes above the extensive caverns of Mammoth Caves National Park.
This doe didn't give her fawn, the speckled deer, much of an opportunity to nurse. You can see the doe pulling away as soon as her fawn tries to suckle. I'm guessing the fawn is already being weaned. It grazed on foliage instead.
Most of the cave tour is in these huge open spaces, which get lit up as you approach. We only saw a couple of sections that water seeps through (second pic) which keeps most of the cave free of stalagmites and stalactites. There was one short section that we had to duck and squeeze through and around the rock walls, but most of the tour was as easy as could be.
Mammoth Cave is the world's longest known cave system. It currently has 426 miles (685 km) explored. It is still being explored today. The park estimates another possible 600 miles in the system. In addition, over 200 caves in the park exist as disconnected fragments of the larger Mammoth Cave system
I was in the first few days of my autumn "leaf peeping" tour to the New England states and Mammoth Cave wasn't even on my radar. But I noticed I was going in that direction and decided to go there. For me, that's what makes a road trip so great - see something, go there. I spent two nights in the park campground. I had packed my suv with an air mattress, pillows & blankets, and of course the food and drink cooler. Most of my trip would be spent in motel rooms, but when available I was happy to spend a few nights car camping.
There are quite a few different tours you can be a part of, something for everybody and every age group, except not handicap available. There are half day tours, full day strenuous tours for the younger, fit and healthy, for example. I chose the shortest and easiest tour. It was about 40 minutes inside the cave. You board a small tour bus at the information center at your designated time. I'm really glad I took the time to visit this amazing place. I've seen a couple of caves before, but this one is the granddaddy of all and should be visited if you are anywhere near the area.
Most of the cave tour is in huge open spaces, which get lit up as you approach. We only saw a couple of sections that water seeps through (here) which keeps most of the cave free of stalagmites and stalactites. There was one short section that we had to duck and squeeze through and around the rock walls, but most of the tour was as easy as could be.
Eons ago in Kentucky, forces of erosion – mainly rainwater – percolated through sinkholes and dissolved underlying limestone layers. However, the sandstone-capped ridge (insoluble to water) above the limestone layers remained intact. Such erosion created air-filled passageways underground with a hard sandstone ceiling. These passageways – caves – are mammoth… bigger than the NYC subway passageways in many places.
Two to three thousand years ago, pre-historic ancient natives of the area explored these caves. Wearing waist-cloth and armed with cane torches, they mined ‘white crystal’ – a mix of gypsum, selenite, epsomite, mirabilite, and other minerals – from walls of these caves. The white mineral likely was intended for trade and medicine. They spent hours inside the cave to harvest as much white crystal as they could before their cane torches succumbed to the caves' pitch black darkness.
At the turn of the 19th century, a certain hunter – Mr. Houchins – accidentally discovered the natural entrance to these caves while unsuccessfully chasing a bear. The entrance – wearing a shy waterfall – was a sight to behold (shown above and on the NPS poster for the park). Soon after, locals discovered that these caves are rich in potassium nitrate, or “saltpetre”, the key ingredient of gunpowder. Soon, slaves were deployed to dig and carry nitre-bearing earth from far parts of the cave to processing vats. Processed saltpetre from these caves were heavily used in the war of 1812. As pointed out by many astute minds, it is indeed ironic that the nation’s freedom was retained on the back of men devoid of that exact commodity.
After the war, the demand for saltpetre dwindled and most slaves switched jobs and became tourist guides. People realized that money could be made by offering cave tours to paying public and seized the opportunity by erecting commercial prospects in the area. The most prolific of these guides was a young man named Stephen Bishop, who charmed tourists both with his oratory skills and physical attributes. Incidentally, Mr. Bishop was owned by the then owner of the caves, a doctor named John Croghan, who specialized in 'treating' tuberculosis. The good doctor presumed that the refreshingly cold and humid cave air had healing properties and built recovery chambers underground for many of his tuberculosis patients. Sadly, the doctor was wrong as he himself was claimed by the disease in 1849.
In the next century, responding to the great depression after the first world war, President Roosevelt created the Civilian Conservation Corps, where unmarried young men were enrolled, and sent off to stations far away with the objective of undertaking ‘complex work’, like, ‘the prevention of soil erosion, flood control, and similar projects’. One such project was to develop the Mammoth Cave as a National Park. In 1930s, CCC arrived at the mammoth caves and undertook construction of housing and cave trails.
One day in 1935, while building cave trails, CCC workers Campbell and Cutliff discovered a gothic scene in the cave. Beyond a sharp ledge, they found the body of a man in waist-cloth pinned under a big boulder. This was the body of an ancient white crystal gatherer who had entered these caves on a fateful day 2-3 thousand years ago and was trapped under a boulder that was likely displaced by his own digging of the cave wall. The constant temperature and humidity in the cave, along with the nitre in the soil, had mummified and preserved this unfortunate archaic man in this delicately beautiful purgatory.
The counselor is perhaps better equipped for his task, if he has experienced personal difficulties, problems, doubts and fears, even a sense of guilt and failure, perplexity and distress, but has come through to peace, both spiritually and emotionally. - Derek Bingham
This was the last part of the "easy" tour. It was not mandatory to go down as the group would go down to see the immediate area and then climb back up to this spot. There were stairs on other parts of this tour, but not too bad.
I found this going through some of my old slides. Shot with a Canon T-90 at Floyd Collins' last funeral. Collins was buried at Mammoth Cave Baptist Church Cemetery on March 24, 1989. He died in nearby Sand Cave in 1925. It was one of the biggest news event of the century, at that time. Skeets Miller of the Louisville Courier Journal won the Pulitzer Prize for his coverage of Collins being trapped and eventually dying in Sand Cave. More info here: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Floyd_Collins
Mammoth Cave, 426 miles discovered so far. This is the longest cave in the world, and is still today being explored. They believe there may be possibly another 600 miles yet to be discovered and excavated.
water was flowing from the ceiling, about 40 feet up, and into a pit in the back of the Frozen Niagara cave...the water was not collecting but flowing into cracks that took the water deeper underground,
One of the stops along the Historic Tour at Mammoth Cave National Park. This is the "Giant's Coffin," a 1,000 ton boulder that is 48 feet long and 20 feet high. Many early visitors to the cave carved or wrote their names on the rock, and it is covered with graffiti from the 1800s. The tour guides pointed out that any markings made before the cave was protected as a National Park is considered historic graffiti, anything carved afterwards is considered a felony.
Along the Frozen Niagara tour, at Mammoth Cave National Park in Kentucky.
The next morning we were to do our third and final tour at Mammoth Cave. We were just chilling and relaxing after breakfast when we checked the time and with a shock saw that our tour started in 30 minutes. And it was a 30 minute drive to the Visitor Center.
So we rushed to the park, driving as fast as possible on the rural roads. The tour we were going on that morning was the Frozen Niagara tour, and unlike the other tours this one requires a short ride on a bus to a different access point to the cave. When we finally arrived at the Visitor Center parking lot, we saw the last few members of our tour group boarding the bus. We hopped out of the car and ran, just as the bus started to drive away. We frantically waved, and amazingly the bus stopped for us. I hated being one of those people who was so late that we had to stop the bus, but I was thankful that we were able to jump on at the literal last second.
Mammoth Cave is known for its immense size, and not for cave formations. But one of the few places where formations like stalagmites and stalactites have formed is along the Frozen Niagara tour. It is one of the most popular tours in the park, and for good reason. It was definitely the most interesting tour that we did. Also it was a smaller tour group, so it didn't fell like you were being herded along with the crowd.
Another view of"the "Giant's Coffin," along the Historic Trail in Mammoth Cave National Park. This is 1,000 ton boulder is 48 feet long and 20 feet high. Many early visitors to the cave carved or wrote their names on the rock, and it is covered with graffiti from the 1800s.