Day 3, Mammoth Caves and the road to Harlan

Day 3 started out a bit later than usual, as we had no park to go to today, other than Mammoth Caves National park. Weather was sunny and hot, way to get the weather right, every single source we checked yesterday (sarcasm).

Mammoth Caves is the largest known cave system in the world, at over 400 miles of discovered caverns, along with the unknown areas that are still flooded and being sculpted even now. The caves are mainly limestone and formed by water erosion, and stay remarkably stable thanks to the cap of sandstone under the ridge above the caves.

Our tour started off in a sinkhole with a bizarre concrete doorway. The tour we chose was the "new entrance", a formerly privately owned entrance to the cave system that was created by a rich fellow to compete with the success of the historic caves in the early 1920's. You can see our park ranger guide, a fine southern gentleman by the name of Bobby.

After only about ten feet of a man-made passageway, the first of the drainage shafts opens up before you. On the way down 280 feet, through four or five separate shafts, you get to see the drainage from the surface sink holes in action. It was pretty dry above ground, so it was little more than intermittent drips to a very light rain underground. The shafts are insanely deep, as they feed the current water levels in the cave that flow out as the Green River.

After the shafts, you come out into a totally dry chamber, where the walls were littered with huge debris. This area of the cave had dried out due to the water diverting to deeper parts and so huge sections of the wall and ceiling had collapsed long ago. Despite the appearance, it is structurally sound as everything that is going to fall has done so already.

After walking through the winding dry passages we could eventually hear running water and we found ourselves in a wet chamber with a leak sprung in the roof pouring water down into the caves. It was here that the rock formations began to appear. Some are just simple stalactites/stalagmites while others appear far more exotic, such as the "curtain" formations. Very cool, best part of the caves.

After we made our way out, we stopped for the first proper lunch we have had so far. Good little country eatery, The Watermill, friendly staff, great prices and good food. If you find yourself in Mammoth Caves, The Watermill, in with a group of three souvenir stores, is a good place to go.

We finished up by 3 or so, and the day being as nice as it was, we decided to head to Harlan a day early for our zip line adventure tomorrow. We just had to eat at a genuine Kentucky KFC for supper, and it was delicious. Better than what we get in Canada.

Speaking of which, it is interesting to be Canadian in little Harlan, I don't know if they have ever seen one before based on the reactions.

"Ya'll aren't from around here are you?"
"Nope, we are from Ontario"
"Oh... what are ya'll doing in Harlan?"

Makes me laugh. Black Mountain Thunder Zip Lines is why we are here, a definite old-school zip tour, looking forward to it tomorrow.

At any rate, Kentucky is a very pretty state, so many hills and mountains. And the folks here have been so nice, I like Kentucky.

Tomorrow is gonna be another travel heavy day, as we are doing the drive to King's Dominion in Virginia after the zip tour. It is good though, shaves off almost half the time we will need to drive to Six Flags New England to pick up our season passes, and uses up the dead Friday we had in our schedule. Tomorrow I'll give an overview of the zip lines, should be a good time!