Monday, June 18, 2018

Mammoth Cave, Kentucky, day 1

We drove from St. Louis to Mammoth Cave today, a relatively short 5 hour drive. We went straight to the park to get tix for cave tours tomorrow. With tix in hand, we walked around the grounds a bit. There's not much to see there above ground. However, there are a couple places where what looks like an ordinary pool of water is actually a flooded entrance to the "longest known cave system in the world." One such pool is pictured here:
 The forested areas above the caves are typical eastern US deciduous forest. I've spent a lot of time in places like this, so it was nice to just walk in the woods.
 Through one break in the trees you could see a bit down the valley. The biggest difference between the hills here and those back in Walla Walla is that they are densely covered in forest. You don't really get to see the underlying geology.
 We had dinner at Bucky Bee's BBQ in Horse Cave, KY. High quality, small-town Kentucky pulled-pork BBQ:
 Sunset at the campground was lovely.
But, pet peeve about campgrounds, it is not cool to locate the tent sites so that tent campers have to walk past 250 yards of cushy RVs, lined up one after the other, each with their very own toilets, to get to the public bathroom. Here's hoping I don't have to get up in the middle of the night to go to the bathroom.

Looking forward to tomorrow's underground tours. I'll take what pictures I can.