November 8th Mammoth Cave

Mammoth Cave: 

Mammoth Cave is a gigantic limestone formation in the south west section of Kentucky.  We spent last night at a lovely park in Cave City, KY. 

 We decided to take the tour of a portion of the cave.  Mammoth Cave covers about 400 miles of underground paths.  We took a 2 hour tour walking about 2 miles.  We decended 350 feet into the dark, dank cave.  Although our path was dimly lit throughout, we needed to be careful where we stepped because the pathway was narrow and dark. One area was so narrow most people needed to pass through sideways.  There were many areas that we had to squeeze through and duck our heads to avoid overhead rock. There was a moment when the guide turned out her light and the darkness was unbelievable, a bit scary! With the minimal light throughout the tour, Mark and I both felt a sense of vertigo.   We felt a periodic sense of dizziness.  Since we had decended 350 feet into the cave we needed to climb back up to get out.  There was a straight up slippery staircase with over 500 steps to the top. It was like walking up an elevator shaft.   All in all the tour was interesting from a geological and historical point of view however, I needed to pay attention to where I was walking so I couldn’t really hear the guide.  She would stop periodically and give the history of the Native Americans, miners, and others who had left their mark in the cave. 

Simply, cave touring is not for me.  I did not think I had clostrophobia until today.  There was definitely a sense of being closed in.  I was glad to get out and see the sunshine.  Fear concurred!!