The caves of Cave City

Back in the early 1800's, Mammoth Cave was mined for it's soil which was rich in calcium nitrate, a mineral that when combined with potassium makes saltpeter. Saltpeter is one of the main ingredients for black gunpowder. After the war of 1812 ended, the cave became a tourist destination and had visitors from around the world coming to see it. It's been a national park since 1941, but it wasn't until the 1970's that it became known as the world's longest cave system, with over 400 miles of cave discovered. They're still finding new sections of the cave every year.

Above Photo Credit: nps.gov

Mammoth Cave is a dry cave, which means there's no water dripping to form stalagmites and stalactites. Another cave close by, Diamond Cave, is wet, and has water running through it constantly with 100% humidity inside. It's the fourth oldest show cave in country, and has been operating tours daily since 1859. It was originally discovered when a farmer found a sink hole in his field, and when he stuck his head inside with a candle, saw some of the rocks sparkling and thought they were diamonds (they were not). The formations in this cave are quite amazing.

I stayed at Singing Hills Campground which was right down the road from the national park boundary, and only a few miles from downtown Cave City. Upon checking in, I was asked if interested in joining the Wednesday night Bible study. I declined. The downtown had an old school small town feeling with a lot of friendly people. I made the trip over to Glasgow for one night to have a burger at Yancey's. Whenever I told somewhere where I was from, it was always met with a shocked look and some sort of expression of "what the heck are you doing here?". I guess the locals don't consider their city a place worth visiting.

Mammoth Cave National Park and Diamond Cave turned out to be way more fun than I thought it would be. It was my first national park visit, and it turned out to be a good one.