Mammoth Caves Kentucky

You really have to pay attention to where you're at in Kentucky. We got off track going to the Caves and we got off track coming back. There were a few questionable banjo playing front porches we noticed during the day. Uh Oh! We saw a lot of beautiful scenery in exchange for the two off tracks.

The total cave miles have increased to 422 and the figure is constantly on the rise as they discover more and more channels.

This is the largest underground cave system in the world.

The orange lines represent the cave system so far opened and discovered. There are 5 levels to the caves, as deep as 365 feet. The lowest level has the river running through it. Our visit went to the 2nd level.

And we're off to the caves.

Remember gang, we're climbing back up these steps to get out.

and more steps....deeper and deeper.

These ceilings are 75 feet above us. These caves really are mammoth in size. No stalagmites in this section, which is okay, seen those, but never a cave this huge....and it goes for over 400 miles.

and on and on it goes.

Further into the cave we came upon this nitrate production area. During the War of 1812, (the one where the British were still pissed over us winning our independence in 1776, and decided they needed another go at the U.S.,) over 400,000 lbs of calcium nitrate was removed from Mammoth Caves.

The natural calcium nitrate product was processed and removed from this soil and forced to the surface and made into salt peter then shipped to a man named Dupont, recognize that name?, who turned it into gun powder and thus supplied Americans with the power to push the Brits back where they came from.

The owner of this mine/cave was selling the nitrate product for over a dollar a pound. After the war the price dropped to 12 cents a pound. He was going broke so decided maybe someone would be willing to come see the caves and pay. Everyone thought he was nuts, but here it is 200 years later and they're still coming and still paying.

A recreation of the nitrate processing.

A cave in...end of this line.

There is no evidence that local Indians lived in this cave system but there were artifacts and occasionally a body uncovered.

We probably walked about a mile into the caves.

Another cave in.

Resurfacing from almost 200 feet below the surface.

The walk back to the museum was so beautiful. Sunlight sparkling through the tree tops. Perfect weather.

Time to head back to DQ for reinforcements.

We saw one in Brownsville on the way. That was the first time we got off track going to the Caves. Must have been the excitement of planning the return DQ visit. We missed the turnoff. Now we found ourselves off track going back. That became very obvious when we passed this road sign.

A Ferry? Cool.

You can see the guide lines from each side of the little ferry. Hey no charge. A free ferry.

But checking the map we were far gone from getting to Brownsville. We managed to drive 10 miles in the wrong direction for Brownsville but in the right direction for home.

Rather than backtrack we drove a bit further and went up to Leitchfield.

VanMeter, a family name. We really do have family that once lived in this area