A little further down the road, we once again pulled off, this time to find The Mayor’s Stonehenge.  We drove into a neighborhood to a house that had a mini Stonehenge in their yard.  I was originally under the impression that the rocks were made of foam, but I discovered they were actual rocks when I touched them.

Mammoth Cave National Park

After a full day and a very long drive, we made it to the campground.  We were tired, so we set up the tent and crashed for the night.  Before going to sleep, I double-checked the cave tour schedule and realized that I had forgotten to get our tickets.  The original plan was to tour the cave in the morning and then head to Indiana, stopping to see the Geode Grotto, Jasper Popcorn, and Jug Rock and take a short hike at Hemlock Cliffs.

When I originally made plans for the trip, I knew I needed to buy tickets ahead of time.  As I was not positive about our departure date at that time, I didn’t make any of the reservations.  When I booked our camping stays, it completely slipped my mind that we needed to buy the tour tickets as well.

The early tours were sold out.  I checked our itinerary to see if we could rearrange some things for the 11:30 tour.  It looked good, but when I attempted to buy the tickets, there was only one slot at that time.  We decided to get the 2:30 tickets and skip the other plans for the day.  Instead, we spent the morning exploring Mammoth Cave National Park.

Floyd Collins

We made the short boardwalk hike to Sand Cave, a spot with an infamous history.  Floyd Collins owned Crystal Cave nearby and wanted to establish a tourist spot closer to the main road in 1925.  He went into Sand Cave on January 30 to see if it would be a viable option.  About 60 feet down, while working his way out of the cave, he kicked a rock loose, pinning his leg and trapping him.  The next morning, his family found him and spent the next five days attempting to free Floyd, bringing him food and water, and even installing an electric light bulb to keep him warm as rescuers worked to free him.  Five days later, there was a partial collapse in the cave, cutting off all physical contact with Floyd.

Word got out, and a crowd of about 10,000 people flocked to the site on February 8.  It became a carnival atmosphere, with picnics, children playing, concessions sold, and moonshiners doing their thing, all while rescuers worked feverishly around the clock to get to him.  On February 10, a military court of inquiry convened to clear up suspicion of criminal efforts to block the rescue attempt and disprove rumors that his entrapment was a hoax.

By February 14, a 500-foot rescue shaft was completed, and a lateral tunnel to Floyd was started, finally breaking through on February 16, to find that he had died.  It was rather ominous to stand above the entrance to the cave with such a sad history.

Just up the road, I explored a cemetery with stones dating back to the mid-1800s.  I am fascinated by old cemeteries.  There is something eerie about glimpsing into people’s lives from so long ago.  There was a mixture of people who lived long lives, some not so much, and several families that lost a few children at very young ages.  As some stones are more than 150 years old, photography does not do justice to the engraving.  I did find a few that seemed to be pretty well preserved and was able to take a few good pictures to tell the story.

We still had an hour before our tour started, so we hiked a trail down to Green River.  With the water so low, I was shocked to learn that riverboats were once a major tourist attraction.  The hike down was pretty easy, but the return hike was steeper than I anticipated.

Mammoth Cave

When our time came, we entered Mammoth Cave.  I was awestruck by the massive size of the cave.  It was different than the many caverns that we have been in, without the stalactites and stalagmites, but still fascinating.  It was fascinating to see the circular roof, which looked to have been formed from a whirlpool created eons ago by two underground rivers coming together.  We were only permitted to venture about a mile into the cave, but the cave has over 400 miles of explored passageways, with another estimated 600 miles of unexplored.

Due to Covid-19, the only tour available was through the Historic Entrance.  Instead of the usual guided tour, they were only doing a self-guided tour at this time.  I really enjoyed the freedom we had to explore at our own pace.  There were rangers stationed throughout the tunnels to answer any questions.  One of the highlights for me was finding out that in the 1880s, there were mushroom beds grown in the cave, which sparked a similar idea in Paris.  Unfortunately, someone decided to dump coal oil in the beds, destroying them.

At the end of the open tunnel, the other curiosity was a small room that had once been used as a hospital for tuberculosis patients.  It wasn’t big, probably only holding two or three beds.  I’m not sure why they would put it a mile down in a tunnel, but medical procedures were vastly different over 100 years ago.

After our day at Mammoth Cave, we headed to Indiana.  As we crossed the river into Indiana, we spotted a hot air balloon flying.  Not something you see every day, it was a treat.

Cataract Falls

We spent the night in a hotel and then continued to Cataract Falls.  Just as we neared the park, we saw a gorgeous hawk sitting on the fence beside the road.  We stopped, but by the time I got out of the car with the camera, he had flown away.  We would have the opportunity to see many more hawks on our journey, some perched on fences or power lines, others flying just above us.

The river was really shallow, but some water cascaded over the Upper Falls rocks after flowing under the old covered bridge.  We followed the path along the river to the Lower Falls, not expecting to see a waterfall.  We enjoyed the walk, seeing chipmunks, blue jays, and woodpeckers.  We followed the empty riverbed until we found a spot where the river plummeted to a wide-open shallow spot with sheer rock formations rising on three sides.  I was impressed with how far out the ripple of the falling water extended.

After our beautiful walk, we headed to Illinois.