But first, here’s a deer:

Tired from a night of partying with the cave trolls.

And then this also came before the cave:

There *is* no excuse for progress.

And *then* I went on the tour.

It’s called “Mammoth Cave” because it’s big (it’s the longest cave in the world).

Remember that one Simpsons where they re-build Ned’s house?

19th-century graffiti artists had much neater penmanship.

Target practice for rock-droppers.

Daylight at last!

People on this tour had a hard time not standing on the rocks. OTOH, the guide stood on rocks, so why shouldn’t the tourists? The guide also said that the National Park belongs to *us* (as opposed to belonging to the government). I didn’t engage, but I really, really wanted to. Discretion and valor, etc.

Historical facts:

• They mined saltpeter here for the War of 1812, also known as the Second War of American Independence.
• Originally, tour guides were all slaves.
• The slaves got to keep their tips.
• One of the slaves discovered a whole lot of the cave.
• You used to be able to take a boat cruise on an underwater river in this part of the cave (the tour guide was proud of having been part of the group that disassembled the boat pier and boats thereby putting an end to the practice).

Anyway. I saw wild turkeys near the deer, but they were skittish and thus the photo was blurry. The bobcat is still the best animal I’ve seen all trip. Although the turtle in Minnesota was also pretty cool.

bkd

No park rangers have ever fished. I’m sure of it. Well, whatever.

It was about a 4 mile round-trip hike to this lake and, yes, tree prison. The lake was okay-looking. I saw fish jumping, but none biting. Went to the river nearby — similar story. I’m trying to figure out how this took an entire day. Eh.

The lake.

The river.

The fishing gear.

The ferry.

I think I needed rooster tails. Was there two and a half hours trying to catch something. That was probably enough to prove the point.

Also! Did laundry at the campground when I got back. And took a cold shower that cost me $2. And it got down into the low-30s that night.

bkd

It’s a nice enough park, definitely worth spending a full day. I spent two and a half, of course — but that was fine, I kind of needed to have a couple days of not driving 300 miles anyway.

Got there around noon, which gave me time to walk around the six or so miles of “hiking paths” around the visitors center. Then it was still only 2:30, so I signed up for one of the cave tours (”New Entrance” was the name of the tour — you can see how that would have enticed me).

Make photos go now:

My campsite.

Fall colors: past-peak.

Boardwalk.

Styx Springs (there’s an underground river, you see).

The bowels of the earth.

The NPS does a good job of setting up their lights, imho, fwiw, etc.

The only stalactites in the cave.

Cave crickets: the bottom of the food chain.

A few lessons learned from the cave tour:

• Cave photos never work out. Maybe if you took a tripod (but the ranger won’t let you).
• This part of the cave used to be owned by a guy who was jealous of the people who owned the other part of the cave and so tried to make his cave seem like theirs.
• There are some really dumb people running loose in this world (I mean, just, not intelligent). “Which direction does water always want to go?” “South!” That wasn’t the worst.
• All caves should come with friendly Filipina-Canadians — a shame they don’t have those in Kentucky.

L8,

bkd