Mammoth Cave, Kentucky

Miles Driven: September 2nd  374.1  New River Gorge, WV to Mammoth Caves, KY
Total Miles: 684.5 Camping Fees: $17.00

Sleeping in a tent by the river was great, just me, butterflies, gnats, mosquitoes, birds, fish, frogs, beetles, ants, cicadas, and trains, no, not a mistype.  Trains, all night long.  Loud and long.  The train tracks were just across the river, less than 100 feet away.  Nothing beats a peaceful night of nature than a long loud train in the middle of night.

Morning on the New River, WV 

Got up super early and found hundreds of red ants crawling over the tent.  Luckily only a very few found there way into the tent.  Took some pictures of the river as the sun started to burn away the mist.  Quite, very quite.  Watched as a blue heron came into land on a huge rock not far from where I was standing.

Blue Heron, New River, WV

Put the kettle on for some tea, (By kettle, I mean the stove and a little pot of water) while I started to pack away the tent.  Being down in the valley there was no cell service and Penelope (GPS) was very slow at pin pointing my location.  (Either that, or she thought I was lost)  Headed back up the mountain to start my drive to Mammoth Cave, KY.
Drove through Charleston, the state capital of WV, very pretty town.  Penelope wanted me to drive around a mountain which would have added another 100 miles to my drive time.  I opted to take a highway to avoid the time and mileage.  Good decision on my part.  Drove through Lexington, KY at rush hour on a holiday weekend, not a good decision on my part.  Oh well, can’t win them all.

Entered Kentucky, first of my new states to visit on my cross country road trip just before lunch time.  Filling up at a gas station I would pay cash and chuckle at the local accents.  Because I took local roads I happened upon Abe’s boy hood home in Hodgenville, KY.  That’s President Abraham Lincoln to you all.  He and his family grow up in a house (if that’s what you can call it) in a small farm called Knob Creek Farm.  I then drove to his birth place just up the road, Abraham

Lincoln's Boyhood Home, Knob Creek Farm, KY

Lincoln Birth Place and National Historical Park.   The memorial building protects the symbolic birth place cabin which happened to be off limits that day.  Had to enjoy it from afar.

Memorial Building

Filling up at a gas station I would pay cash and chuckle at the local accents.   Arriving to late to visit the caves, I camped at the National Park Service of Mammoth Cave, KY.  Tired from driving I pitched my tent and eat dinner.   A moderate campsite with running water and an air conditioned bathhouse.  What perks!  Being a popular camp site there was very little dead wood lying around.  Could only have the campfire going for about an hour before I ran out of wood.  But that was all I needed as the days drive wore my out.

Thought I got up early at 7am and eat breakfast and packed everything away by 8:15am.  Stopped by the camping office to pay and chatted with the ranger.  But to my surprise when I entered the Mammoth Cave National Park visitor center I had to wait for it to open at 8am.  Yep, I was in central standard time and not eastern stated time.

1. Niagara Falls, Mammoth Caves, KY

I chose the 2-hour New Entrance Cave Tour for $12.00 stated as ‘moderate difficulty‘.  The temperature year round is about 58 degrees.  There were some tight places to walk through but nothing that bad.  Upon entering you had to walk down stairs, 280 on the initial descent 250 feet down.  One has to marvel at the construction of the steps.  The steps took 20 years to complete and the park went through 3 contractors to finish the job.  The first contractor wanted to have the steps worked into the rocks, and not the rocks around the steps.  The second contractor under bid the job and went bankrupt.  The third and final contractor was a submarine stair engineer specialist.  The job only cost $3,000.…………..................................... per step.  Remember, there are 280 of them.  You do the math.  Our tour guide was great and very amusing.  She turned the lights off and give us the experience of how the caves naturally.  Dark, complete blackness.  Could not see a thing, nor could you hear a thing.

Some of the names in the caves: Grand central station, Grand Canyon, Grand Central station, frozen Niagara, Rock of Gibraltar.  These names were given to formations in the cave to attract visitors.