Welcome Welcome to one more trip that I took in 2018. This time, we visited one of the National Parks in the United States – Mammoth Caves National Park.
This trip was memorable for so many reasons. The first reason being the location itself, which boasts of being the longest known cave system in the world. Monika had suggested visiting this place and I didn’t have any doubts that this was going to be a one epic trip. The second reason was we were visiting a National Park. I am in love with the National Parks here in the US, so, I was excited when I knew that we were going to visit one, giving me an opportunity to cross off one more item from my bucket list. The third and most important one was the company. I was surrounded by all the people that I love here in the US, so the excitement was palpable to spend time with them and create more memories.
The trip started off with us driving from Michigan to Kentucky. Let me tell you the drive itself was 10 hours long with breaks in between. We started early in the morning to make sure we reach our Airbnb before the dark, which didn’t happen. I remember driving the last leg of the trip and was really careful while driving through the dirt road leading to our Airbnb. I think that was the first time I was driving on a narrow dirt road in the dark with my friends, which added to my nervousness. Anyway, we safely reached our Airbnb and had wonderful dinner and late night gossips before calling it a night.
The next entire day was filled with the exploration of the caves. We had booked a tour to take us through different part of the caves and help us explore how people in the past must have felt while exploring these caves in the olden days.
The exploration started off with us standing in a long line to get in the cave. This waiting time was also fun because we had so many things to do and say to each other. Believe it or not, waiting in line and pulling each others legs and gossipping about who knows what was the best possible time I spent before actually entering inside the caves.
Our wait was short lived, when the line moved quicker that I thought. Before I knew it, we were escorted at the entrance and our tour officially began.
The first memory of the tour was our guide giving us all the cool historical feature of the caves, which I chose to forget, but what blew me away was when he shut down his torch to show us how it felt like being in the cave without any lights. It was scary to tell you, and I remember fellow tourists including yours truly making weird sounds just to freak others out. We made sure we held Aryan & Arnav close to us so that they don’t wander off in the dark.
After that little scare, it was time to hike through the caves. I was impressed by how well they had kept the caves. It was shocking to find out how clean it was and the management had made sure to preserve the genuinity of the caves, at the same time, create some artificial attractions that were worthy of pictures.
The first attraction that I loved the most was “FAT MAN’S MISERY“. It is exactly how it sounds like. This patch of the cave is roughly 4 feet tall with just few inches of gap between two rock walls. At first, I was reluctant whether I would pass through it or not but when I saw other people getting across without much difficulty, it gave me confidence. Apart from tilting my neck a little and limping my way across this patch, everything else was picturesque. I remember kids making fun of me as I was having difficulty going through it. I loved it! 🙂
The second awesome thing that I remember was the “FROZEN NIAGARA” portion of the tour. I had never seen Niagara Falls in person, so this was a surprise for me. I must say, it was really impressive to witness such an awesome site inside of a cave. Before heading to this tour, I just had a small idea what the caves were about, but, I am not kidding this “Frozen Niagara” tour blew me away. The scenes in the cave and the way the water was dripping from the Stalactites and the way they were helping form the Stalagmites. It was worth watching and experiencing. I would definitely recommending this whenever you plan to visit this national park.
After the tour, it was time to explore a few more attractions in the National Park, which couldn’t leave up to the expectations of the actual cave. We spent some time in the tour bus, before calling it a day and head to our Airbnb.
It was a refreshing trip and would love to visit once more if I get a chance.
Next stop: Thanksgiving 2018 at Monika’s.
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