Mammoth Cave

So the super secret destination was Mammoth Cave in Kentucky. Kiddo and I went to Carlsbad Caverns this summer. Of all the parks we went to, that seemed to be the one my partner most envied. And kiddo got kinda bored in the cave. So I hatched a plan to someday take my partner and NOT Kiddo to Mammoth Cave. And it turns out I got to enact that plan sooner than I thought.

It was a long drive down, and I really wanted us to get there before the Visitors Center closed (6:30pm) so that we could pick up some guides and figure out which cave tours to go on the next day. Unfortunately Mammoth Cave is not set up for any self guided tours (as Carlsbad is), so you have to go as part of a group.

We got there a few minutes after 6 (aided by the switch to Central time), and it turns out they have a 6:15 lantern tour. So we went straight at it.

I actually found the lantern tour less cool. Because the electric lights were off, you couldn't see far. And because you were generally surrounded by lanterns, you couldn't really see much beyond your group. So I felt like I missed some of the awesomeness of the cave. We eventually figured out that we were happier up front where our lantern did give us a bit of a hint of the darkness we were always walking towards.

Americans found Mammoth Cave long before they found conservationism, so there's a lot of historical graffiti in certain sections down there. Apparently it was often commissioned by white tourists - and actually put on the walls and ceilings by tour guides... who usually happened to be slaves.

After the tour we set up our tent and checked out the tour schedules. We were both interested in the tour that visits the underground river, but that is only offered in the middle of the summer, so that wasn't an option (until the early 90s they actually had boat rides on a stretch of river. How badass is that?).
The two we considered are the two longest:
the Wild Cave tour, which involves crawling around in tight passageways ("Chest or hip measurement must not exceed 42 inches; if you are larger, you cannot physically pass through the crawlspaces") and
the Grand Avenue tour, which is basically 4 hours over 4 miles (they stop and talk to you, sometimes too much).

We kept wondering if the claustrophobia would be too much on the Wild Cave tour and ultimately decided on the Grand Avenue tour. We figured out later we probably would have been turned away from Wild Cave because of our lack of boots. It also starts too early in the morning for vacation...

Anyway, a good thing about the Grand Avenue tour is that it didn't involve any of the cave that we toured the night before. So we heard new things for the most part. I think it's a good choice if you're only going on one tour. And if you're going on two, this one pairs well with one of the historical entrance tours (Historic Tour, or the aforementioned river tour).

We ended up eating lunch down there. And bathrooms in caves are always kind of neat.

Near the end of the tour they shut off all the lights. Now that, my friends, is total darkness. (obviously none of these pictures are of that moment)

Side note: my annual pass didn't get us anything here. The park is free to get into, but you have to pay for tours. Kind of lame that you can't even get a discount with the thing.

A few weeks after we got home we watched "The Descent", which was utterly terrifying.

Day 21: Carlsbad Caverns and West Texas

As mentioned before, we ended up camping in Brantley Lake State Park. The NPS website for Carlsbad Caverns lists free backcountry camping, as long as you're a half mile from the road (the backcountry road, at that). Ultimately I decided that was not for us. I couldn't have been more right. I didn't drive down the backcountry road, so I suppose it could be different, but the land right around the caverns is possibly the hardest I saw on the trip. Some of the land up in Utah appeared to be nothing but dirt. But this appeared to be nothing but rocks and cactus, as far as the eye can see (although I'm sure there are rattlesnakes too). While driving to the visitors center I looked around to see if there were any clear areas the size of our tent, but I saw just rocks and cacti. And "No Overnight Camping" signs.

I convinced Kiddo that we should walk down the ramp and enter the cave via the natural entrance, then take the elevator back up. She likes elevators, but it would mean missing a decent stretch of the cave, especially the part where you descend into the mouth of the cave and eventually walk away from the natural light.

So I don't have a lot of good Caverns pictures because my current camera is awful. To be specific, it's extra awful in low-light situations, like "in a cave", "at night", "indoors", or "anything that is not outside in the middle of a sunny afternoon". It's a point and shoot from 2004. It *finally* got put out to pasture, only its replacement broke, a fact that was discovered right before this trip. So it's back. I'm a little hung up on trying to make another big trip next year, only this time with a more awesomer blog and a kickstarter page... so maybe a new one next year...

Kiddo was scared in the cave. Not overwhelmed or anything, but was NOT interested in letting go of my hand, even for me to take a picture of something. Maybe it was ok that the camera didn't work so well in the cave, then...

Kiddo actually got a bit bored too. We took the natural entrance down to the "big room", then did the loop through the big room. I hurried us through because she was getting bored and feisty.

Oddly, over the next few days (I would much prefer I had written all of these in a timely fashion, but there are benefits to being late with it, and one of them is tying in small pieces of information from later in the trip) she talked up the caverns, and drew pictures of them (well, drew them in Powder Game, which is sort of like  interactive temporary art on the internet). I think that it was a really neat thing for her to do, and unlike anything else she's experienced, but not necessarily fun while it's happening.

On our way from the ticket station to the entrance, we stopped at an activity station and made a little foam bat finger puppet. She named it Rainbow. Well, Rainbow went through the whole cave with us, but we lost her when we came back up and sat to finish the Junior Ranger book. We'd left the Visitors Center and were on our way back to the main road when I get asked "Where's my bat?" It was one of those moments as a parent where you want to just say 'sorry, we really shouldn't turn around just for a little piece of foam, and why didn't you take good care of it anyway' but the right answer is 'we're both going to have a miserable time unless we spend a measly 15 minutes going back for that thing, so let's go'.
We couldn't find Rainbow in the visitors center and went back to the activity table... where they were doing something else. But we talked to them and the nice lady left to get the finger puppet activity stuff, and Rainbow got herself a new bat body, and all was well with the universe.

This was going to be the one night on the trip that we stayed in a hotel. So we didn't have an exact destination set, just a few towns alongside I-20 in Texas that we'd find a place at. I actually sent a text to Facebook and Twitter asking for help finding the cheapest place, but Facebook decided my text should be a private message to someone, not a status update. But regardless, our Colorado host (honestly, if I'm going to do this pseudo anonymity thing I probably should have given everyone nicknames) texted me almost immediately with information. It was cool. And so I got to use the internet for the first time in awhile, courtesy of hotel wifi (which I have noticed is the number one thing mentioned on hotel signs these days).