Post by L Roebuck on Jul 23, 2006 9:21:18 GMT -5
Caves draw raves
Mammoth Cave fun trip aboveground or below; it's 7 hours from Akron
By Bob Downing Beacon Journal staff writer
MAMMOTH CAVE, KY. - Mammoth Cave is a national park with options.
The sprawling underground playground, a strange and eerie world of blackness, is a park where visitors need to do their homework in advance.
Mammoth Cave National Park in west-central Kentucky offers 13 different cave tours, some of which sell out weeks in advance, especially on weekends and in the summer.
It is the world's longest cave system, stretching more than 367 miles, going nearly 380 feet below the surface and attracting about 2 million visitors a year, of whom 400,000 actually go underground.
The five-level cave system of limestone has been a major American tourist destination since 1816.
The cave features passageways as wide as highways. There are giant chambers and giant vertical shafts. The cave is largely dry, although there are underground rivers in the deeper levels: River Styx and Echo River. It is a cave with a rich history including mummified bodies and petroglyphs.
Stephen Bishop, a slave and one-time guide, called Mammoth Cave a ``grand, gloomy and peculiar'' place.
The caves were created by rain and carbon dioxide combining to create a weak acid that dissolved the limestone, starting 3 million years ago.
The tours range from historic lantern tours to geologic tours to wild caving trips in which you crawl, squeeze and inch your way through very close quarters. Anyone with a chest or hip measurement in excess of 42 inches cannot participate in the wild cave trips because of the danger of getting stuck.
But even on the general public tours that visit 10 miles of passages, there are tight spaces, narrow passages, low ceilings, darkness, drips from the ceiling, claustrophobic spots and steps that climb and descend hundreds of feet.
The tours, most lasting about two hours, are educational, informational and entertaining. Most are described as moderately strenuous. The prices range from $4 to $46 a person.
Some are offered seasonally. There are 12 summer tours and five the rest of the year.
Mammoth Cave is semi-lit. There are lights along passages, perhaps 30 feet apart. Some geologic features are lit. But you are generally walking in total darkness and semi-blackness. Some visitors on my tours had their own flashlights.
Some tours have more steps and steep climbs/descents than other tours. Some cover longer distances underground. All are over uneven surfaces.
Some trips handle large groups; others are limited in size.
The temperature is generally 54 degrees although it can be colder and warmer near the entrances.
Some are not for people with fears of heights or close places or steep steps. Restroom facilities in the cave are limited.
The key is to find in advance the right tour for you and your family. And to book those trips before you get to the 52,830-acre national park.
I joined two tours: the Historic Tour, a two-hour trip for up to 120 people that covers two miles. The change in elevation is 300 feet and there are 440 steps, according to the National Park Service.
Its emphasis is on large trunk passages in the cave system, the oldest tour routes and the cultural history of the caves.
It is one of the most popular and most frequently offered tours, leaving en masse from the park's always-crowded Visitor Center.
Our tour was led by ranger Jerry Bransford, who had two ancestors, Mat and Nick Bransford, slaves who were among the first to explore the cave and to guide tourists.
Not far from the Historic Entrance, discovered in the 1790s, is the Rotunda, 140 feet below ground, where slaves mined nitrate. They hauled in logs, built leaching vats and filled them with cave dirt. Water in hollowed-out logs flowed in and brine trickled out, also in old logs. The nitrate crystals were used to make gunpowder.
An underground boulevard, Broadway, leads to an underground gathering placed called Methodist Church, where church services were once held in the cave.
Giant's Coffin is a large slab of whitish limestone that looks like an oversized coffin.
The Bottomless Pit is 105 feet deep. Looking up, you will see a dome above you.
Fat Man's Misery is a narrow passage where the rocks have been polished smooth by human contact. You emerge into Great Relief Hall.
The last two attractions are Mammoth Dome -- 192 feet from floor to ceiling and carved by water dripping through a sinkhole -- and the Ruins of Karnak, gleaming limestone pillars.
Frozen Niagra tour
I also joined in a Frozen Niagara tour, a tour trip that covered three-fourths of a mile. The elevation change was 250 feet and there were 500 steps, of which nearly 300 were descending into the cave.
It featured stalactites and stalagmites -- something not seen on the Historic Tour.
Frozen Niagara is a reference to a glowing 75-foot-high stone waterfall. It may be the most popular spot in Mammoth Cave and is featured on four tours.
It flanks the Drapery Room, discovered in 1923. It features walls of drip-stone materials and lots of stalactites and stalagmites.
On both tours, rangers switched off the lights and let the total blackness envelope us for a few moments. They then lit matches.
The Travertine tour is short and easy. It lasts 75 minutes, covers a quarter mile and there are only 36 steps.
For cave tour reservations, call 800-967-2283. You can also go to www.nps.gov/maca/Reservations.html.
Backpacks and purses are not permitted inside the cave system, in the wake of 9/11. Strollers and tripods are also banned.
The park service is working to replace the underground lighting with six miles of fiber-optic cable, 1,200 fixtures and 155 switches.
Fun aboveground
Aboveground, Mammoth Cave offers 80 miles of trails on and over four wooded ridges and canoeing on the Green and Nolin rivers. There are two canoe liveries outside the park.
Attractions include Sand Cave, where caver Floyd Collins was trapped and died in 1925; Cedar Sink, a giant sink hole; old-growth Big Woods; and Sloan's Crossing Pond, a pretty wetland.
A three-car ferry will take visitors across the Green River and provide access to the northern half of the park.
The park features campgrounds, boat tours, bike trails, fishing, bridle trails, a hotel, cabins and restaurant.
The park -- it is on Central time -- lies about nine miles off Interstate 65 halfway between Louisville, Ky., and Nashville, Tenn. It is about seven hours from Akron.
The park was authorized in 1926 and established in 1941. It was named a World Heritage site in 1983 and an International Biosphere Reserve in 1990.
The park's visitor center is closed on Christmas.
For more information, contact Mammoth Cave National Park, P.O. Box 7, 1 Mammoth Cave Parkway, Mammoth Cave, KY 42259; 270-758-2180. The Internet site is www.nps.gov/maca.
For campground reservations, call 800-365-2267 or check out www.nps.gov/maca/pphtml/camping.html.
For the hotel and cabins, contact Forever Resorts LLC, Mammoth Cave, KY 42259; www.mammothcavehotel.com.
There are a number of other caves nearby. They are Outlaw Cave, Diamond Caverns, Crystal Onyx Cave, Hidden River Cave, Kentucky Caverns, Lost River Cave and Onyx Cave. It is a touristy, kitsch-filled area.
For lodging and attractions outside the park, call 800-346-8908 or see www.kycaveregion.org.
Article: www.ohio.com/mld/beaconjournal/living/15071413.htm
Mammoth Cave fun trip aboveground or below; it's 7 hours from Akron
By Bob Downing Beacon Journal staff writer
MAMMOTH CAVE, KY. - Mammoth Cave is a national park with options.
The sprawling underground playground, a strange and eerie world of blackness, is a park where visitors need to do their homework in advance.
Mammoth Cave National Park in west-central Kentucky offers 13 different cave tours, some of which sell out weeks in advance, especially on weekends and in the summer.
It is the world's longest cave system, stretching more than 367 miles, going nearly 380 feet below the surface and attracting about 2 million visitors a year, of whom 400,000 actually go underground.
The five-level cave system of limestone has been a major American tourist destination since 1816.
The cave features passageways as wide as highways. There are giant chambers and giant vertical shafts. The cave is largely dry, although there are underground rivers in the deeper levels: River Styx and Echo River. It is a cave with a rich history including mummified bodies and petroglyphs.
Stephen Bishop, a slave and one-time guide, called Mammoth Cave a ``grand, gloomy and peculiar'' place.
The caves were created by rain and carbon dioxide combining to create a weak acid that dissolved the limestone, starting 3 million years ago.
The tours range from historic lantern tours to geologic tours to wild caving trips in which you crawl, squeeze and inch your way through very close quarters. Anyone with a chest or hip measurement in excess of 42 inches cannot participate in the wild cave trips because of the danger of getting stuck.
But even on the general public tours that visit 10 miles of passages, there are tight spaces, narrow passages, low ceilings, darkness, drips from the ceiling, claustrophobic spots and steps that climb and descend hundreds of feet.
The tours, most lasting about two hours, are educational, informational and entertaining. Most are described as moderately strenuous. The prices range from $4 to $46 a person.
Some are offered seasonally. There are 12 summer tours and five the rest of the year.
Mammoth Cave is semi-lit. There are lights along passages, perhaps 30 feet apart. Some geologic features are lit. But you are generally walking in total darkness and semi-blackness. Some visitors on my tours had their own flashlights.
Some tours have more steps and steep climbs/descents than other tours. Some cover longer distances underground. All are over uneven surfaces.
Some trips handle large groups; others are limited in size.
The temperature is generally 54 degrees although it can be colder and warmer near the entrances.
Some are not for people with fears of heights or close places or steep steps. Restroom facilities in the cave are limited.
The key is to find in advance the right tour for you and your family. And to book those trips before you get to the 52,830-acre national park.
I joined two tours: the Historic Tour, a two-hour trip for up to 120 people that covers two miles. The change in elevation is 300 feet and there are 440 steps, according to the National Park Service.
Its emphasis is on large trunk passages in the cave system, the oldest tour routes and the cultural history of the caves.
It is one of the most popular and most frequently offered tours, leaving en masse from the park's always-crowded Visitor Center.
Our tour was led by ranger Jerry Bransford, who had two ancestors, Mat and Nick Bransford, slaves who were among the first to explore the cave and to guide tourists.
Not far from the Historic Entrance, discovered in the 1790s, is the Rotunda, 140 feet below ground, where slaves mined nitrate. They hauled in logs, built leaching vats and filled them with cave dirt. Water in hollowed-out logs flowed in and brine trickled out, also in old logs. The nitrate crystals were used to make gunpowder.
An underground boulevard, Broadway, leads to an underground gathering placed called Methodist Church, where church services were once held in the cave.
Giant's Coffin is a large slab of whitish limestone that looks like an oversized coffin.
The Bottomless Pit is 105 feet deep. Looking up, you will see a dome above you.
Fat Man's Misery is a narrow passage where the rocks have been polished smooth by human contact. You emerge into Great Relief Hall.
The last two attractions are Mammoth Dome -- 192 feet from floor to ceiling and carved by water dripping through a sinkhole -- and the Ruins of Karnak, gleaming limestone pillars.
Frozen Niagra tour
I also joined in a Frozen Niagara tour, a tour trip that covered three-fourths of a mile. The elevation change was 250 feet and there were 500 steps, of which nearly 300 were descending into the cave.
It featured stalactites and stalagmites -- something not seen on the Historic Tour.
Frozen Niagara is a reference to a glowing 75-foot-high stone waterfall. It may be the most popular spot in Mammoth Cave and is featured on four tours.
It flanks the Drapery Room, discovered in 1923. It features walls of drip-stone materials and lots of stalactites and stalagmites.
On both tours, rangers switched off the lights and let the total blackness envelope us for a few moments. They then lit matches.
The Travertine tour is short and easy. It lasts 75 minutes, covers a quarter mile and there are only 36 steps.
For cave tour reservations, call 800-967-2283. You can also go to www.nps.gov/maca/Reservations.html.
Backpacks and purses are not permitted inside the cave system, in the wake of 9/11. Strollers and tripods are also banned.
The park service is working to replace the underground lighting with six miles of fiber-optic cable, 1,200 fixtures and 155 switches.
Fun aboveground
Aboveground, Mammoth Cave offers 80 miles of trails on and over four wooded ridges and canoeing on the Green and Nolin rivers. There are two canoe liveries outside the park.
Attractions include Sand Cave, where caver Floyd Collins was trapped and died in 1925; Cedar Sink, a giant sink hole; old-growth Big Woods; and Sloan's Crossing Pond, a pretty wetland.
A three-car ferry will take visitors across the Green River and provide access to the northern half of the park.
The park features campgrounds, boat tours, bike trails, fishing, bridle trails, a hotel, cabins and restaurant.
The park -- it is on Central time -- lies about nine miles off Interstate 65 halfway between Louisville, Ky., and Nashville, Tenn. It is about seven hours from Akron.
The park was authorized in 1926 and established in 1941. It was named a World Heritage site in 1983 and an International Biosphere Reserve in 1990.
The park's visitor center is closed on Christmas.
For more information, contact Mammoth Cave National Park, P.O. Box 7, 1 Mammoth Cave Parkway, Mammoth Cave, KY 42259; 270-758-2180. The Internet site is www.nps.gov/maca.
For campground reservations, call 800-365-2267 or check out www.nps.gov/maca/pphtml/camping.html.
For the hotel and cabins, contact Forever Resorts LLC, Mammoth Cave, KY 42259; www.mammothcavehotel.com.
There are a number of other caves nearby. They are Outlaw Cave, Diamond Caverns, Crystal Onyx Cave, Hidden River Cave, Kentucky Caverns, Lost River Cave and Onyx Cave. It is a touristy, kitsch-filled area.
For lodging and attractions outside the park, call 800-346-8908 or see www.kycaveregion.org.
Article: www.ohio.com/mld/beaconjournal/living/15071413.htm