Mammoth Cave: Frozen Niagara cave tour

We took the first available tour this morning so we could move on down road later in the morning. There are lots of pictures in this post so Brother-in-law Tom the Geologist can see everything we saw and imagine he was there also.

The various tours explore just 10-12 miles of the Mammoth Cave system, although there are 390 miles of surveyed caves and perhaps up to 200 miles of undiscovered caves.  There are caves and tours with natural entrances, but for this tour we got on a bus and drove to this unnatural entrance.

Looking up at the rock ceiling:

According to the National Park Service website:  "A disease called White-Nose Syndrome (WNS) is spreading through the eastern United States, killing bat populations. Although this disease does not bother humans, it has been associated with the deaths of more than 1 million bats since it was first identified in 2006."  Therefore all cave visitors are required to walk through this shoe-cleansing mat after tours.

Our day had just begun, we got in the car and drove about 65 miles northeast to our next destination.