Venturing in Mammoth Cave
I've been trying to get to Mammoth Cave for 6 years and today I finally made it! Woohoo! I have a bucket list goal to visit every national park in the US (hopefully I can get to them faster because they just keep adding more), so there's another check mark to one! One of the things I've been realizing lately is just how many national parks are within 8 hours or less of where we're located. An 8-hour drive isn't too bad with the kids, and several are even closer.
Mammoth Cave is about 1 hour from us (I know, it's almost wrong that we haven't gone before now). Prior to making the trip, I had looked on Pinterest for different recommendations and I had seen where the guided tours fill up quickly so it's best to register for them online before going. However, I decided that with the kids being the ages that they are, I didn't want to do a guided tour and would rather do the self-guided (called Discovery tour). I'm also not a big fan of guided tours anyway, but I did see some pictures of some cool views that you can only get to through a guided tour, so I think it would be worth it to do that one day. However, we spend 45 minutes in the cave, and I couldn't imagine spending any more time in there because the kids were about spent. I'm very content with the decision I made for this trip!
All the information you'll need can be found on the national park website here. I had also read that the park is free to enter, but you have to pay for all the tours. This ended up being the case for us as well, even though we did the self-guided Discovery tour. It was a bummer because we have the annual national park pass, so I feel like we've already paid to enter all the parks for the year, but the tickets were only $8 a piece, and kids under 6 are free, so it wasn't expensive.
As it turned out, I was very glad that we did the Discovery tour because the kids ended up being scared in the cave! We walked all the way down from one end to the other, but by the time we were leaving, they were definitely done with the cave. Killian is 2, and Reagan is 3, so if you have toddlers, I recommend just keeping that in mind when you choose the right option for you and your family.
Cave City is in central time, so even though we left our house at 9:30AM, we also arrived at Mammoth Cave at 9:30AM. I always like to start in the visitor center, and this time was no different. Good thing we did, too, because neither one of us really had a good idea of what to do. All I really knew was that most of the tours are guided, you need to register for them beforehand because they fill up fast, and that's pretty much it. The rangers at the visitor center were super kind and helpful, and gave me a clearer understanding of how things worked and what I could expect.
Tickets for all tours are sold at the visitor center, so it's a good thing we stopped there. We also picked up a map of the hikes in the park before we headed out on the tour.
Things I had on my list to bring:
- Jackets
- Bug repellent
- Headlights
- Water
Things I actually needed:
- Jackets
Things I forgot to bring:
- Jackets
We ran out of the house in a mad rush this morning, and we didn't bring the backpack carriers or a backpack of any kind for that matter, and it was mostly fine, but I would have definitely liked to have had something to put my water bottle and all the tickets and papers in instead of carrying that in my hands the whole time. We also all had sunglasses and didn't need them in the cave, so a backpack would have been helpful to carry all the sunglasses as well.
The hike down to the cave is about .4 miles, so even that was substantial for two toddlers. When we finished in the cave and we're walking back to the visitor center/parking lot (it's all right there together), we passed back by some rocks that Killian wanted to climb on when we were on our way down, so we stopped there for a few minutes while they climbed on the rocks with Levi. I was so impressed with how they did! For being only 2 and 3, I just thought they were so impressive.
When we got back to the parking lot/visitor center area, I guess Levi was feeling pretty hot and wanted some ice cream to cool down with, so we all shared a cup of ice cream, which was so fun to do together.
Back to the visitor center, Levi and I got some stickers. I looked for where they stamp passports (even though we had forgotten the kids' passports) and I never could find it! I would have tried harder if we'd remembered their passports though, because I'm sure it was somewhere (clearly, we were very prepared for this trip lol).
The kids had really slowed down by this point, and I knew we would all be ready to leave before much longer. Last thing we wanted to do was a little biking on the bike trails. We jumped back in the van to go to the biking trails, and we biked for about 30 minutes. At this point, the kids were ready to eat, they were thirsty, and come to find out (because they fell asleep on the way home) they were also exhausted! Which they should have been because they didn't go to sleep until 11PM the night before. I was also ready to go, and I think Levi was as well. Back in the van, the kids fell right to sleep on the way home, and we got home about 2:30PM. All in all, it was a really great half day trip (which works perfectly for toddlers who are still napping).
Things I did to be prepared, especially with toddlers:
- Searched on Pinterest for recommendations. This is also where I found all the information I already had on the park, and I felt much more prepared because of it.
- Looked at the national park website ahead of time. Many of the tours have an age requirement, and they list the tour lengths on the website as well. I knew I didn't want to battle the kids in a tour for two hours, which is why I settled on the Discovery tour, and it was definitely the right option.
- Brought snack bags (which they ended up eating on the drive to the park)
- Packed lunch for the kids
- Packed jackets (even though I forgot to use them)
- Packed lots of water (Kentucky can get pretty hot in the summer, and while the cave is 54 degrees year-round, the outdoors are quite hot)
Things I'll do next time:
- Take a closer look at the hikes and see if any of them pique my interest.
- Possibly sign up for the frozen Niagra tour. Pictures at the park from along the tour looked really pretty, and while I would need more info on it before committing (length of time, age requirements, etc.) it's definitely one that interests me!
- Invite friends to go along!
Altogether, I'm glad to have gotten the kids some new exposures (especially to something uncomfortable like a cave), gotten them outdoors, and gotten another national park checklist for myself!
Soli deo Gloria
Charity
