Mammoth Caves

Hi Readers,

Last weekend I went with SB, one of my friends, to Mammoth Caves National Park in Kentucky. We had planned on going somewhere after graduation for 3-4 days, partially because it was summer and we both wanted to relax, and partially because I will be leaving for Stanford soon and we won't have another chance to hang out like this for awhile. We originally thought about going to Michigan's Upper Peninsula, but since SB left the planning of the trip up to me and I didn't know anything about the UP, I looked up the National Parks list and chose Mammoth Caves.

Mammoth Caves are the longest caves in the world, at 392 miles in length. Many geologists think that MC may contain a system of more than 600 miles in length. Most of these miles are not open to the public, for fear of contamination and of disruption of the fragile ecosystem. But there are ~12 miles of the caves that are open to the public for tours, since these are parts of the caves that have been open for centuries for tourists since the time when the caves were private. SB and I went on many of these cave tours, including

1) Historic Tour: this tour was very history-intensive, including talks about the saltpetre mining operation that took place at the caves, the slave tour guides that first explored the caves, as well as some geology. This mammoth dome was brilliant, as were the tour guides.

2) New Entrance Tour: this tour gave us a tour of the Frozen Niagara section, which was stalactites and stalagmites galore. Was great, but if we had known we would have gone through the same parts during tours 3 and 4 we probably wouldn't have done it.

3) Introduction to Caving: Easily my favorite tour of the bunch. We went caving and spelunking through tiny passages, armed with only headlamps, helmets, and kneepads. I wish I could do it again.

4) Grand Avenue Tour: Some of the rooms we passed through were humongous! We climbed 3 underground mountains that were 200 ft high each. It was awesome.

SB and I at Frozen Niagara section

Going through the caves were so fun and cool (literally, it was 56 degrees inside the caves year-round). Everytime I saw some kind of passageway leading off to the side, I had to suppress my urge to go down it and explore. If I had done that I might not have been able to get out after the tour guide leaves. I also found Kentucky to be awesome, and I especially love the sexy accent lol. It was too bad that SB and I weren't able to find a spot on the Wild Caving tour, which would have been beyond awesome. Oh well.

I also found Kentuckians to be really friendly, much more so than I imagined. SB and I went on mini-roadtrips around the Mammoth Caves area, and for dinner we stopped at a steakhouse. Needless to say we were the only Asians in the place. We were just chatting about life problems and stuff during dinner, and as the neighbouring table was leaving, the old lady stopped at our table and offered us advice on our problems. It was the first time that something like that has ever happened to me, so I was somewhat taken aback by their frankness and openness. It was quite refreshing. Also, when SB and I went hiking in the park, everyone we passed by on the trail said "hi" to us, always with a smile. One even stopped and talked to me about sushi (he was wearing a shirt with different kinds of sushi on it and I chuckled as he walked past me).

On the way back, SB and I decided to ditch the interstate and to drive back the entire way on county roads. I had a map of Kentucky so I was able to navigate through KY on county roads with no problem. When we hit Indiana we started navigating blindly, since neither of us had maps. It was quite an adventure, especially after sundown when there was no more sun to tell us which way was north. Eventually we found I-74 near Danville and made our way home. But it was so relaxing, passing through all of these small small small small small rural towns in Kentucky and Indiana.

Next week I'm (probably) going with another friend to the Cedar Points amusement park in Sandusky, Ohio. I'm sure it'll be a blast!

-FCDH