Mammoth Cave National Park in Kentucky: Taking the Historic Tour

mammoth cave national park is located in central kentucky and it's both a national park and a unesco world heritage site the park features the longest cave system in the world with over 400 miles of caves that they're continuously adding to as they explore more amy and i visited in january of 2020 so the information in this video could be outdated but i'm trying to make a video on every national park in the united states and i really wanted to encourage you to get out and explore this one even if it's a little bit different than what i saw i've been in a lot of caves and this is easily one of the best i've ever seen be sure to check it out if you're in the area here's all the information the park is located about an hour and a half north of nashville or an hour and a half south of louisville we made it into the park right next to the welcome sign but we gotta go all the way up here to the visitor center to start our tour it took a while for us to get there but it was a nice drive and when we finally arrived at the visitor center we checked in for our tour the visitor center has a lot of great exhibits on the cave's history and how the cave formed [Music] it also talks about how long the cave is and our guide told us it could easily be a hundred more miles this is the 400 miles of caves that have been explored there still could be more here we walked around for another 20 minutes and then made our way outside to start our tour what do you think amy am i going to fit in the uh fat man's misery oh it might be kind of questionable are you saying i'm fat it's a little tight are you saying i'm fat you're a big man definitely not as small as that woman this is how the tours look in the summer but we're here in the winter and there's only eight people on our tour when it's time for the tour they'll let you know to gather outside and to wait for your guide there are plenty of different tours that you can take here but we took the most popular which is the historic tour and it's over two hours long and two miles of walking after learning all the rules for the cave the tour began by walking to the historic cave opening which is pretty amazing to see plus it was winter so it had some frozen icicles on it as well [Music] as we headed down our guide told us all about the cave in its history and how we would only be exploring less than half of one percent of the known cave on this tour heading in the tour began by heading through a long passageway that was only about eight feet tall before making our way through and into an area known as the rotunda this was an incredible part of the cave to visit in the beginning as it's a vast ceiling with a huge cavern they also have some gravestones down here that you can see as well from there we headed down a section known as broadway which was gigantic as well and provided some great views of the cave system the path continued like this for a while giving us lots of opportunities to take photos and just to take in the view eventually we made it to giant's coffin which is about the halfway point of the tour and it does look like a giant coffin made out of rock here the guide turned off all the lights and showed us the complete darkness and what it would have looked like with a lantern as well from giant's coffin you'll leave the wide open areas and enter a more narrow portion of the trail i do have to say that i've been in a lot of cave tours and if you're claustrophobic this is one of the most narrow i've ever been in it's not bad but you should definitely know that going in heading down to the lower part of the cave [Music] we made our way towards a section known as fat man's misery which is especially tight but along the way we got to see two large pits that are in the cavern one that you can barely even see the bottom of they called this second pit the bottomless pit because back in the day with the lights they had you couldn't see the bottom at all but now with the lights that we have you can see the bottom [Music] it's a little short from here the cave enters the most narrow part which is known as fat man's misery we're getting into batman's misery this area is very narrow along your feet and the ceiling is not very tall meaning that you kind of have to bend over and try to shuffle your way through it's definitely a single file area as well so you have to take your time and wait for the person in front of you this is the tightest tour i've ever been on pretty crazy but look at amy doesn't even have to duck benefit of being short it's fine in the beginning but it gets more and more narrow as you continue on to the very end which is only about three and a half foot tall and you have to bend over and do the last 15 or so feet at that height finally though once you get through you'll enter a large area known as the great relief hall after what you've just passed through [Music] the last stop on the tour was mammoth dome here you'll be at the lowest point that you're at in the cave and then you'll have to climb the stairs to get back out on the way you'll see the bottom of the dome which is really impressive and you'll get to a large room with a flow stone called butterscotch falls this was easily my favorite thing to see on the tour and it's a pretty amazing formation as you continue up the stairs you'll get a sense for how tall the dome really is and it is pretty impressive eventually you'll make it back out to the rotunda and make your way back out the cave to the entrance the two hours flew by on this tour for both my wife and i and we really enjoyed it like i said i've been in a dozen caves in the u.s and this is easily one of the best i can't wait to go back and go on another one of their tours and let me know what your favorite tour is in the comments [Music] thanks so much for exploring this cave with us be sure to get out here and check it out it's an amazing cave to tour you can read more at three mylens.com and we'll see you on the next video you

Channel: Through My Lens

Views: 40,719

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Id: ab3aux8twDE

Length: 6min 34sec (394 seconds)

Published: Sun Dec 05 2021