We visited Cave City, KY in order to see the Mammoth Cave. We’ve seen several caves/caverns on our travels and definitely wanted to see this one.

It’s the most extensive cave system known to man. That’s saying a LOT. That said, however, it certainly isn’t the most unique or spectacular cave we’ve seen. There are very few formations…VERY few! Most of the cave that we saw on a 2 hour tour was limestone tunnels carved by water, and caverns where huge boulders had fallen from the ceiling to the floor of the cavern caused by the less solid limestone wearing away and causing the more solid sandstone to be unsupported…thus falling in huge chunks.

It was still a very interesting tour! It started with 280 steps down a metal staircase that was only wide enough for 1 person at a time, and several times you had to duck or turn sideways to get past a rock jutting out into the staircase. My mild claustrophobia kicked in a few times, but at least the narrow areas were high and only for a step or two. I concentrated on the people in front of me!

Several of the pictures below are of the natural downward tunnel where they built the staircase.

We walked past lots of rooms and tunnels and finally got to an area that did have some formations. It’s called the Little Niagara because the major formation looks like a rock waterfall! We also saw some cave crickets! We didn’t see any bats although there are some in the cave, just not in the area we toured.

Here are some pictures: