NOTE: Wanda sent out a Welcome Notice to new subscribers. Somehow it ended up going to everyone. So, WELCOME!

After a hard day of exploring, we treated ourselves to chips, salsa, and margaritas.

Last Spring, Wanda and I toured Carlsbad Caverns. Today, we toured Mammoth Cave. How did they compare? Before tackling this, I want to state that we love caves of all sizes, varieties, and flavors. That said, let me roll up my sleeves and get on with it.

Both caves are colossal. Depending on your source, Carlsbad is either 30 miles or 126 miles long. (I’m not sure why there is such a large discrepency.) As of September 2021, Mammoth cave had a whopping 430 miles confirmed. This makes Mammoth Cave the largest cave system in the world. No matter what your source is, Mammoth dwarfs Carlsbad and wins the size competition.

Both caves offer only a tiny portion of their length to the public. Carlsbad opens up three miles of the cave for tours. Mammoth cave offers 14 miles. Another nod for Mammoth.

The two caves differ dramatically in terms of how tours are conducted. Depending on the time of the year, Mammoth Cave can have up to a dozen different tours available. Most are 2 hours long, and they visit different sections of the cave. All tours are guided by a park ranger.

Carlsbad has one tour. Its tour is self-guided, and you walk at your own pace. A maze of paths are laid out, and visitors can wander as they please.

The caves also differ in appearance. Mammoth Cave is mostly a dry cave. That means that it doesn’t have many formations, like stalagmites and stalactites, caused by dripping mineral water. Instead, the endless shafts are strewn with boulders haphazardly thrown about. The shafts can be narrow slots or fat chambers; they can drop a hundred feet or soar straight up a hundred feet; and the beauty, although subtle, is beauty nonetheless.

Carlsbad is blessed with all the in-your-face amazing and gorgeous formations. It is hands-down the prettier of the two caves.

My verdict? Carlsbad edges out Mammoth by a nose. The formations at Carlsbad were breathtaking, and I liked the more casual self-guided tour format. Also, with our senior discount, it was cheaper.

However, please do not let my verdict take away from the splendor of Mammoth Cave. We loved our Mammoth Cave tour, and our guide was both informative and funny.

We chose the Domes and Dripstones tour. Reviewers stressed that if you only go on one tour, this is the one to do. It has the widest variety of sights, including Niagra Falls. Niagra is one of the few spots in the entire cave system that does have formations, and they are delightful.

Our Ranger guide getting ready to herd us into the cave entrance. He had a good spiel and a high-pitched light drawl that reminded me of Barney Fife.

To reach the bowels of the cave, we descended down the steep twisting narrow stairways.

We were greeted by our cave friends.

One of the many shafts plunging straight down.

One of the many shafts soaring straight up.

The red, yellow, and orange lighting added to the surreal other-worldliness.

The flat ceilings were interesting.

A room with seats - a good place to hear another well-crafted tale about the cave. It turns out that this part of the cave was originally owned by George Morrison. He bought the property in 1921 because his intuition told him that a part of the Mammoth Cave might run under it. Using dynamite as his exploration tool, he found a shaft that did lead to the cave system. In 1922, he opened up for tours. He had two things going for him: 1) His location was easier to reach than the public entrance. 2) His part of the cave had that coveted “wow-factor” - a small section with magical formations. He sold his cave to the Park Service for $290,000 during the depression.

George Morrison’s Niagara Falls.

Mammoth’s visitors center has a nice little geological museum complete with the kind of info plaques, charts, and photos that we enjoy. I learned that the Appalachian Mountains were formed when Africa slammed into North America.

We were also presented with more shallow sea evidence, one of our favorite North American geological forces. Sure enough, this part of Kentucky was right on the shore of this sea. Millions of years of sea creatures are responsible for depositing all the limestone. Ah, but here is the kicker. Right where Mammoth Cave is located, a river emptied into that sea. It brought down a load of sand and built an extensive delta. That is why there is a layer of sandstone capping off the 600 feet of limestone underneath.

You know, I look at this beautiful landscape and see trees, rivers, bubbling springs, and steep hills. I am baffled how someone can look at the same thing and see ancient seas, deltas, tectonic plates slamming into one and another, etc. Still, I am absolutely fascinated by their discoveries and conclusions. We love knowledge. We love science.

The yellow squiggly lines represents the Mammoth Cave.

A 3-D model of the cave within the park’s boundaries. This is only a small portion of the cave.

The dark blue represents the ocean. The light blue is the shallow sea we keep hearing about. The brown is land. The brown area on the lower right is Africa slamming into North America to form the Appalachian Mountains. Of course, this all didn’t just happen yesterday.

After the cave tour, we jumped on our ebikes and rode the old Mammoth Cave Rail Road trail into Park City, 10 miles away. At the turn-of-the-century, there used to be a cute miniature RR that serviced the area. The park converted the RR right-of-way into a bike trail. They mostly used crushed limestone, but again, like LBL, they sprinkled in some courser rocks here and there. We are getting used the occasional rougher surfaces. Unlike most rails-to-trails bike trails, this one was not all flat. The poor little RR engine had plenty of steeps hills to navigate. All-in-all, the trail was gorgeous.

Park City was a let down. The tiny downtown was mostly abandoned. There was a Post Office and Miss Betty’s Dinner. It was closed on Tuesdays. The highlight of the town was the Grand Victorian Inn, a magnificent looking former Hotel converted to a country Inn. The Inn advertized a swanky restaurant, but it was closed. Actually, all of Park City was closed.

This might be one of the original trestles - well, modernized of course.

The Grand Victorian Inn on the outskirts of Park City.

Life slows down at the Inn.

This is pretty much all of downtown Park City.

Along the trail, we stopped at a boardwalk that circled a pond.

A picture of the original RR. Notice how cute the little train is.

An actual Mammoth Cave RR engine and passenger car preserved at the park.

This tree marks mile 0 on the trail.

Back at V-Jer, we gobbled down a quick sandwich for supper and topped off the day by driving into Cave City for chips, salsa, and margaritas at El Mazatlan. Cave City’s downtown is kind of dead, but the outskirts has plenty of franchise restaurants, a Jelly Stone Campground, and Dinosaur Land. As cheezy as all that is, El Mazatlan is a real-deal Mexican family-run restaurant. The chips and salsa were fresh, the margaritas packed the required punch, the TVs were showing soccer games, the music was genuine traditional Mexican, and the bartender barely spoke English. We left with smiles all around.

Glossary of terms used for newcomers: 1) V-Jer. The name of our camper. 2) Saturn. The name of our Van. 3) Duende. Our mischievous gremlin that breaks things. 4) Tata. The good gremlin that helps us fix Duende’s dirty work. 5) The Black Hole. This is what we call Walmart because every time we go in for just a couple of items, we come out spending way more than we figured. 6) QT. Quaint Town. 7) Little Buddy. This is what we call our Dyson cordless stick vacuum.

Dave and Wanda

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