Day 3 – Mammoth Cave National Park

Wigwam Village Motel

We made the short drive from where we were staying in Horse Cave to Mammoth Cave, passing through Cave City with its myriad of tourist attractions. The first photo attached is one of Wigwam Village, which has a special significance to me as I stayed there with my family probably sometime in the mid to late 1950s, in the motel’s hay day. This was pre-Interstate highways so the motel was then located on the main road, Highway 31W. I only have vague recollections of staying there but it was nice to see that it is still in business after all these years.

Frozen Niagara

When we arrived at Mammoth Cave, we found that almost all the tours were sold out for the day, but fortunately we had bought our tour on-line days before where there was a complete selection available. We took the “Domes and Dripstones” tour, which lasts for 2 hours and includes the Frozen Niagara tour. The view of Frozen Niagara is probably the highlight of the Mammoth Cave adventure for those not taking the more strenuous tours. By strenuous I mean a 4-hour tour with a lot of climbing and specifically for people in great physical shape. As it was, our tour was moderately strenuous and starts with a descent down 250 steps into the depths of the cave. That is no easy feat and requires the avoidance of “wishing rocks.” Wishing rocks, as our tour guide explained, are those rocks that you wished you had ducked under after you hit your head.

Stalactites and Stalagmites

The tour winds through some pretty tights spaces, over seemingly bottomless pits and occasionally through wide open passageways. We stopped twice in rooms with enough seating to handle our group of about 120 where the ranger explained the history of the cave and the various formations that we would be seeing. In addition to stalactites and stalagmites, there was drapery, columns (connected stalagmites and stalactites), bacon and popcorn and we did see most of them in the Frozen Niagara section. In the second room, the ranger turned off all the lights and there is no place darker or more quiet on earth.

Drapery

The final part of the tour is about a 100 step drop to the bottom of Frozen Niagara where you can really see the wonders of the cave that were developed over thousands of years. Simply amazing. And the best part of the tour was that we didn’t have to climb back up the 250 stair steps to get out. There was an exit conveniently located nearby and we were out of the cave.

There were no bats on the tour, at least none that we saw. The bat population was recently hit by something called the “White Nose” syndrome which had killed between 80 and 90% of their bats.