Our first hike into Mammoth Caves! The world's largest cave system. 405 miles of mapped and chartered caves!
After a long day yesterday, with the hike to Devil's Bathtub and then the 5+ hour drive to Mammoth Cave National Park (with no lunch and finally having dinner at 10 PM), we weren't sure how we would manage this 9:00AM 4 hour, 4 mile hike. But, a good night's sleep can do wonders and off we were!
We stepped into the caves, and the temperature immediately dropped to ~54F. The chill was surprising, but we eventually got through it. Our shorts and T-shirt were sufficient. The tour group of about 70 people stepped in and we all collected around the guide, for basic instructions and general information about the caves.
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| The temperature suddenly lowered! |
Tours in the caves began in 1816! Next year, will be 200 years of tours in these caves, making Mammoth Cave the 2nd oldest (after Niagara Falls) tourist attraction in the United States. Back then, tourists that came in were different...they used to dress differently. They were dressed in 3 piece suits or fancy dresses. The paths weren't laid out as they are now. It would have been a much more strenuous and difficult tour.
In the 1930s the Civilian Conservation Corps was formed and some of them were sent to Mammoth Caves to build the pathways we were walking on. Richard, our guide, had a 90+ year old tourist a few years ago who was part of the CCC that did the work here. He just had to come back and see what had happened to all the work he had put in! :)
The caves were once a location of an ancient sea. As the mollusks and other organisms died and collected at the bottom, it created the main rock of the cave. About 15 million years ago, the Green River eroded through the upper sandstone into the limestone, beginning the cave formation. In time, underground streams began to flow to the Green River through the limestone, forming what are now the highest passageways (level 1) in Mammoth Cave. Over the last 10 million years, the Green River cut down into its valley. Underground streams dropped to meet the river, forming deeper and deeper cave levels. As the underground streams dropped, older streambeds became dry. The passages at the top of the caver at the oldest. The cave currently has 6 levels, with the river at the 6th level, making caves as I writes this. They describe the cave system as an upside down bowl of spaghetti. It is an excellent analogy. The spaghetti are the caves and the bowl is the sandstone and shale capstone that envelopes the caves.
After the instructions and information we proceeded through canyon and phreatic passageways in the caves. The caves have gypsum flowers and formations all over. The grow 1mm every 900-1100 years! Some of them were so big, I can't even imagine how old the must be!
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| Gypsum Flowers |
Walking through caves like this, was an experience neither of us had ever had. I have been in caves before. We go in, we look at multiple beautiful stalactite and stalagmite formations, take photos and soon leave. You don't walk in the cave for long distances. Today, we hiked 4 miles in the cave. We went through some really narrow paths, some with low ceilings so we had to bend and walk, some paths were a steep incline and some a steep decline. It would have been really difficult to scale those without the railings fit in. The geography and the formations cut out by the water kept us in wonder as we trudged along. It's such a different world and as we walked it was so beautiful, ever changing, challenging and just completely unique.
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| Phreatic Passageway |
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| Snowball Dining Room. The ceiling looks like it is crusted with snowballs |
Richard stopped in one place to tell us about the life in the caves. There are 114 different species that live in the cave either their whole life or visit the cave. There are bats, beetles, crickets, eyeless shrimp, eyeless crayfish, eyeless fish, eyeless scorpion, Kentucky fresh water fish and microorganisms. All the animals have adapted to life in the caves with no light. The fish, shrimp, scorpion and crayfish have lost their eyes since they have no use for them, and they also have no pigment. They are translucent and you could see their systems working!
Richard showed us a camel cricket he found in the cave - it has longer legs and and antenna to help it feel and move in the dark cave.
My favourite part of this tour was when we sat down in one place. He asked us to stay silent, and all the lights were turned off. The Silence! But the silence wasn't as shocking as the darkness. The pitch blackness! I have never in my life experienced such darkness. You could not see anything! There was no "adjusting" to the darkness, because there was absolutely no light to help you adjust. It was something!
After they turned the lights back on, we were told about Charles F Harvey who was lost in the cave for 39 hours. In that darkness, that silence. They did find him, and when they did, he was singing. The search team told him he was smart to sing, it helped them find him. He said, that that was not why he was singing. It was so silent, he was singing to prevent going insane! I can't imagine how one would maneuver their way in that darkness, it seems so impossible to me!
We were instructed not to write on the walls of the caves. However, there is writing to be seen on the caves. When tours first began in the 1800s, they were conducted by slaves. They would get paid by the tourists to write their names on the walls. The guides carried candles and burning torches to light the way for the people touring the caves. The guides and their guests used candle smoke and lantern soot to write their names on the cave ceiling. In many places, we saw these candle smoked writings.
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| Candle Smoked Writings |
The tour did end with stalactites and stalagmites. They are huge and we saw the "frozen niagara", 75 feetx 50 feet x 15 feet. Under the Niagara, is a beautiful "room" of more of these structures. So much fun to look at and marvel and nature.
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| Frozen Niagara |
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| Stalactite Formations |
