MAMMOTH CAVE: FROZEN NIAGARA TOUR

On Saturday, August 30th, Marie and I drove a couple hours to Mammoth Cave National Park.  Neither of us had been in quite a while.  Because it was Labor Day weekend, we bought the tickets online (Recreation.gov) about 10 days in advance.  Even planning that far ahead, we couldn't get the tour I wanted - Focus on Frozen Niagara, which is geared toward photography and accordingly allows some extra time for tour participants.

The standard Frozen Niagara tour, which we took at 4:45 PM (side note: we both totally forgot we'd be switching to Central Time, so we arrived an hour earlier than planned), is the shortest and easiest of the tours.  It's also the most scenic.  Mammoth Cave may be spectacular in scope, but most areas are not particularly stunning in comparison to some other caves.  The portions seen on this tour are an exception.  From bus pickup to dropoff, the tour takes 75 minutes, but you only spend about 45 minutes underground and travel about a quarter of a mile.  During this brief trip, you see some pretty amazing things.  There are only 12 required stair steps, but an additional 98 (49 down, 49 up) to see the Drapery Room. Check out some of my pictures below.

One of the buses.  Our driver got a little frisky around the moist curves.

Silhouettes of other tourists in the "Rainbow Room."

Looking down into "Crystal Lake."

Frozen Niagara

The Drapery Room

Looking up in the Drapery Room

More drapes.

Drapes for days.

Formations next to Frozen Niagara

Frozen Niagara

Frozen Niagara

And...Frozen Niagara

The view when you enter the chamber that includes Frozen Niagara and the Drapery Room.

The bridge between the hotel and visitor's center.  The hotel has a much nicer gift shop, but the visitor's center is where you can get your National Park passport stamps.