Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Today a variety of tours are offered by the National Park Service, ranging from a
quarter-mile stroll to a five-mile belly-crawling, body-squeezing trek (a warm coat is re-
commended for the former, and kneepads are required for the latter). One tour includes a
stop at the Snowball Room, where the lofty ceiling dazzles the eye with frostlike nodules
of gypsum.
Among the cave's permanent residents are an assortment of creatures that have over
the millennia adapted to the midnight environment of this netherworld. Colorless, eyeless
fish haunt the cool waters of Echo River, as do similarly blind crayfish. Other native cave
dwellers include spiders, beetles, and cave crickets. That any creature can survive in this
sunlessrealmisastounding;soisthefactthatthecaveitselfisconstantlyexpandinginsize
as its dripping and flowing water dissolves the stone and carves the caverns ever deeper
down into the bowels of the earth.
Did you know…
Mammoth Cave is the world's longest cave and was first promoted in 1816,
makingitthesecondoldesttouristattractionintheUnitedStates.NiagaraFalls,
NY, is first.
10.
Duncan Hines Scenic Byway
Continuing through Mammoth Cave National Park, the drive hops across the Green River
by ferry, entering an area of wild backcountry—a veritable Garden of Eden compared to
the darkness and silence of the caves beneath the ground. Sunlight filters to the forest floor
through a thick canopy of maples, beeches, sycamores, oaks, and hickories, and the forest
is filled with chirping songbirds. Here the seasons are exquisitely portrayed, beginning in
spring and summer with a colorful procession of blooming dogwoods, redbud trees, and
wildflowers. In the fall blazing reds and golds ignite the foliage. But only in winter, when
the ground is barren and brown and all the leaves are gone, can you see the craggy lay-
ers of limestone—along with all their sinkholes, streams, and fissures oozing with icy wa-
ter—that tell of the deep bond between the land above and the dark world below.
Continuing north out of Mammoth Cave National Park, the drive follows the well-
marked Duncan Hines Scenic Byway past lofty ridges, deep valleys, and outcroppings that
look like ancient weathered castles. At the southern tip of Nolin River Lake, the byway
veers north to Bee Spring, then west and south through such charmingly named villages
as Sunfish, Sweeden, and Windyville. As you continue along this series of country lanes
edged with fieldstone fences, follow the scenic byway signs all the way into the town of
Bowling Green.
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