Mammoth Cave

The Wills and the Busses left the State Park and headed about 100 miles down the road to visit Mammoth Cave. I drove at 62 mph to see if I could improve the gas mileage. With the AC on and traversing up and down the hills, we averaged 8.1 mpg. Much better than the high 6’s that we have been getting at higher speeds. In order to save on diesel fuel since the prices are so high, I guess I’ll have to slow it down. We pulled into the Diamond Caverns RV Resort which is a Thousand Trails affiliated campground and realized the same thought that we had when we have stayed at one of the affiliates before: older campground with ample room, uneven gravel sites and so much potential. It’s first come to pick a spot so we arrived at 11:00am and got two spots near each other.

There was a bike trail through the woods that was created from the old railroad tracks that were used as a spur to get visitors to Mammoth Cave years ago. Fairly nice ride (deep gravel in some spots):

The four of us visited the Abraham Lincoln Birthplace National Historic Park located in Hodgenville.

The property was built next to the Sinking Spring:

In February 12th, 1909 they started building this neo-classical building around Abe’s birth cabin:

That date was significant because it was exactly 100 years after Abe birth. There are 56 steps up to the building, one for each year of Abe’s life.

On the inside you can see Abe’s cabin:

Here’s the interesting tidbit: 40 years after this monument was completed researchers discovered that the cabin was NOT the one that Abe grew up in! Honest Abe won’t have allowed that!

Besides that aspect, we had a great time visiting the unofficial cabin of our 16th president:

Afterwards we headed over to the Flywheel Brewery in Elizabethtown for a cool brew:

A food truck – Blue Grass Meats, rolled up so we stayed a little longer and ate bbq and had another round.

The main attraction, Mammoth Cave, was scheduled for the following day.

We took the historical tour with around 75 of our closest friends. Descending down the opened sink hole, we climbed 62 steps – no significance as far as I know:

This place is so enormous that they paved a walkway through the carved out stone:

The caverns were created when water ran through the roughly 50 feet of sandstone and then ate away at the softer limestone beneath. Absolutely stunning! Check out these pictures:

Did you see the steps built to ascend back up through the narrow chimney? There were other narrow paths that we had to traverse:

Before the National Parks purchased the land above the Mammoth Cave System private tours were conducted there. On those tours people could carve their names in the stones and/or use the burnt end of their torches to blacken the stone:

Interesting facts about the Mammoth Cave System include: 1) it is the longest cave system in the world, 2) there have been continuous tours here for over 200 years, 3) the current count (more added every few years) is 420 miles of mapped caverns, and 4) during the War of 1812 Mammoth Cave was mined for the minerals that make gunpowder. There are still remnants from the time period in the cave:

Very interesting experience! I would recommend a stop for at least one of the ten available tours.

We headed back to our rigs for dinner and games before saying adieu to the Wills as we both were heading in different directions the next day. We will see them again in a few months back at the Myakka River Motorcoach Resort. Safe travels Wills!