Mammoth Cave

Mammoth Cave

Is the world's longest know cave. 

Names on the walls written before 1941 are considered part of the history.
Writing your name on the wall now is a federal offense. 

Nathan and I visited Mammoth cave in 2001, it was fun to return with our kids.

  We took the historical tour.  Part of the tour focuses on the life of the caves first guide, Steven Bishop.  He was a slave of the man who first opened the caves for paid tours. At the time the short tour was 6-8 hours and the long was 12-16. He became well known and sought after to lead tours.  The guide told us Steven learned what he could from the people he was guiding. He educated himself and learned several languages including Latin. In 1856 we had his freedom. He and his wife had been saving to move to Liberia, but he enjoyed what he did and kept exploring the cave and died 18 months later.

We had the awkward family photo while at the falls. This is the classic kids on vacation photo. 

This was called fat man's misery a narrow passageway.  We had people behind us and couldn't stop to get a great family shot, this was the best I could do while on the move.

Mammoth Cave is part of the National Park Service. They provide you with a junior ranger book.  They give you page requirements based on age, once you fulfill them you earn a  junior ranger pin.

Elliot survived the cave, he said he didn't need to go through it again.
His purchase at the gift shop was a stuffed animal, of course. By the time we returned to Michigan after our vacation he would have acquired four new ones. 

As we were leaving we spotted some deer.