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Mammoth Cave National Park, Kentucky

NPCA REGION: Southeast Regional Office

Acreage: 52,830.19

Category: National Park

Date Established: 07/01/1941

More Info: http://www.nps.gov/maca/

With over 350 miles of passageways, Mammoth Cave is the longest known cave system in the world. No other cave even comes close. And explorers aren't even done mapping it yet! The cave system features five separate levels of subterranean rooms, narrow passageways, deep shafts, and underground rivers, all some 400-feet underground. While many visitors come to explore the depths of the cave, Mammoth Cave National Park also protects more than 52,000 acres of land, including rolling hills, sinkholes, and the Green River Valley. Outside the cave, visitors enjoy views from ridge tops covered with oak and hickory forests, deep valleys, and scenic bluffs. The park is home to a variety of animals including eastern white-tailed deer, bobcats and great blue herons. With more than 200 different bird species, birders may well be able to add a few dozen new species to their life list.

The natural wonders of the park are quite diverse, but they can be overshadowed by polluted air. According to NPCA's research, Mammoth Cave National Park is one of the five most polluted parks in the park system. The haziest days in Mammoth Cave are worse than those in any other national park or wilderness area and often match that of urban areas. The park is downwind of large, coal-fired power plants that produce much of the sulfur pollution responsible for hazy skies. NPCA is fighting on both the national and local levels to clear the air in our parks to ensure the long-term health of the parks and their visitors.

If You Go

Mammoth Cave National Park is located in central Kentucky, about 35 miles northeast of Bowling Green, Kentucky, and about 90 miles southwest of Louisville. Make reservations for the cave tours before you go, especially between the months of April and October. Tours of the caves are popular and fill up quickly.

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Comments

We really enjoyed the cave tours while visiting the park. The lantern tour was really cool, going through in the evening with only the light of our lanterns to guide us. The rangers were very knowledgeable and friendly as well. My favorite part was going through Fat Man's Misery and seeing the Bottomless Pit. Only one bat flew above us during our time in the cave; my friend flipped out but I missed it.

Submitted by Anonymous at: July 31, 2008

Because the cave has been "open" for over 200 years the interior is essentially pillaged and looted. There is not a square foot of reachable cave wall that has not been defaced with graffiti, and cave formations were damaged or destroyed long before the NPS took over the cave. Nonetheless the anal-retentive park rangers are obsessed with keeping the visitors from even touching the cave walls. Other than being massively large these caves have nothing going for them. I recommend seeing Cub Run Cave about 20 miles to the north, a much more interesting, beautiful -- and undamaged -- private cave.

Submitted by Crabapple at: July 3, 2008

Mammoth Cave was wonderful and the Rangers did an excelent job. We canoed the Green River in the Park and unless you are a regular on the water it was quite a long 8.5 miles. Skip the canoes and get kayaks as they glide much easier.

Submitted by Doctor Doc at: July 2, 2008