We went to Mammoth Cave National Park for spring break with friends of ours, the DeWitts. We’ve known each other since before we had kids. Their kids are just a touch younger than ours, and they all get along great. We’ve spring break-ed together for the past few years now.
We drove up Monday and back Friday and stayed just north of the park.
- Monday: Atlanta to Cub Run
- Tuesday: Mammoth Cave tour
- Wednesday: Cedar Sink Trail and Bowling Green
- Thursday: Trails Around the Visitor’s Center
- Friday: Cub Run to Atlanta via Nashville Lunch
Monday: Atlanta to Cub Run
Monday we drove up through Chattanooga and Nashville. I really dislike going through Chattanooga, because there is always traffic. I would for a train from Atlanta to Chattanooga to Nashville, not that it would have gotten us to our final destination this time.
The drive in Kentucky was scenic with lots of farmland. As we neared our Airbnb the roads got smaller and twistier.
We got settled in and looked for the closest grocery store, which was a Dollar General about 15 minutes away.
Tuesday: Mammoth Cave tour
Tuesday had our only scheduled activity: a guided tour of Mammoth Cave. We had booked the Domes and Dripstones Tour.
Getting to the visitor’s center proved confusing at first. The Green River runs east/west, bisecting the park into north and south sections. We were staying north of the park, and the visitor’s center is in the south section. To drive around is a ~50 min/35 mi trip. But there’s a ferry that crosses the Green River in the middle which cuts the trip down to ~15 miles, but only 10 minutes faster.
With the limited information on the ferry, and how disastrous it would be if it caused us to be late and miss our tour, we opted to drive around the park to get there and try the ferry on the way back.
Unfortunately, Apple maps kept rerouting me back to the ferry, and by the time I discovered that we were at the road to the ferry, so we decided to give it a try anyways.
Fortunately, the ferry was awesome and was about 10 minutes faster than Google/Apple maps estimated. It’s a little two-car ferry that goes back and forth shuttling cars across the river. It turned out to be the most exciting part of the trip, and I didn’t even know about it beforehand.
The Domes and Dripstones tour is rated “difficult,” but was no problem even for our kids. I’ve found I have a hard time with the rating system at national parks. I understand that they’re rating for a very general population, and I don’t know a better solution, but some kind of objective measure would be nice. “Difficult, but if you’re active you’ll be fine.” I don’t know.
Wednesday: Cedar Sink Trail and Bowling Green
Wednesday we hiked the Cedar Sink Trail. This trail is alone in the southwest part of the park and is known for its wildflowers. I think we were maybe a week or so early for peak wildflower display, but we saw a lot of blooms. Once again, the kids did great.
From there we continued southwest to Bowling Green. It and Elizabethtown are the closest big(ish) cities to where we were staying and apparently Bowling Green is the more interesting of the two.
First we went to Chaney’s Dairy Barn for ice cream and a little tour of their robotic dairy. Then we went to downtown and hung out at a coffeeshop and shopped the square. We ate dinner at Gerard’s Tavern.
Thursday: Trails Around the Visitor’s Center
Thursday we inverted the day and chilled the house for the morning then the park in the afternoon.
We strung together several of the trails around the visitor’s center to be able to cover a lot of ground and give multiple early “outs” if we needed them. We left a car at the visitor’s center and started at the ferry parking lot. We started on the Echo RIver Spring Trail,. Then we connected to the Sinkhole Trail, seeing the White Cave and the Mammoth Dome Sink. Next we connect to the paved Heritage Trail to see Sunset Point, an overlook over the Green River valley. We took the Sunset Point Trail to see the River Styx spring, the spot where the underground river exits the cave system. We hiked the River Styx Spring Trail to the Old Guides Trail to return to the visitor’s center.
Overall it was a little more than 2.5 miles, and, again, the kids did great.
Friday: Cub Run to Atlanta via Nashville Lunch
Friday we packed up and headed home. We stopped at Ladybird Tacos in Nashville for lunch. It was delicious. Then we continued home through the Chattanooga traffic.
We had a great time, and I look forward to the next spring break with our friends.
