Here are a few pictures from inside Mammoth Cave. I took the Grand Avenue tour which was four miles in length and four hours in duration. Two days later my muscles are still sore. We ended at Frozen Niagara which is the best known feature and also the most photogenic of the areas I experienced.
I knew I wouldn’t take a whole lot of pictures because rocks is rocks is rocks. And because there is no way to communicated photographically the scale of the cave rooms and passages.
What I get from being in nature (and visiting National Parks by extension) is the sense of being small in a vast and beautiful place. In art history, the term is sublime, which means experiencing beauty and terror in equal measure. I really expected to feel that in Mammoth Cave!
I expected to feel something inside Mammoth Cave and surprisingly, I didn’t. The guided tours are highly mediated and talk about geology, statistics, some social history (that I wish I could unhear because honestly there were some decidedly bad takes).
Underground slot canyons! This part was really fun. Also, we had to walk single file so this was one part of the tour/hike where it was quiet and everyone could have their own less mediated experience.
The ranger guide said that parts of the cave have been visited by humans for 4,500 years. That’s the part I want to visit. I imagine those rooms of the cave are seeped in the residue of human rituals and life. The wonder that the first humans to explore the cave felt, the home-ness of parts that provided shelter for generations. They’re probably not spectacular looking, but I bet they resonate.
I have more to say about some of my experiences this day—some synchronistic luck that I had. I’ll send that in a second message. Right now I’m in Michigan for the wedding!
Here are a few more pictures from the cave!
