May 30…. The Big One

The longest (public) tour in the longest cave. That has to be worth something too, right??

Today we went on the Grand Avenue Tour. Over 4 hours and more than 4 miles through the earth.

This was our favorite tour, because it covers some of everything. Big tunnels. Tiny tunnels. Tall slot canyon tunnels, with the ceiling so far up it gets lost in the gloom. Huge round vertical voids formed by drip after drip over thousands of years. Pits filled with water and passages so dry the dust puffed under our feet. And stairs! Hundreds of stairs. Over 1500 steps they tell us.

Some of the areas today were covered in gypsum formations. Popcorn, just bumpy nodules of gypsum lining the walls and ceiling. Delicate flowers of gypsum. This stuff only grows under perfect conditions and this was the place.

We passed the old Snowball Dining Room. Years ago, there was an actual restaurant down inside. It originally had real meal items for purchase, but somewhere along the way, it switched to just box lunch type food. That’s how it was when I was here in ‘89. Today, it’s cold and dark, just like the rest of the cave. It closed up back in the ‘90’s. 😞

The ranger giving the tour did a good job, mixing in some history, some geology, some old stories about the Kentucky Cave Wars, when tourism was booming and visiting the many caves in this area was a huge moneymaker for the locals.

Ending the tour, we went through the Frozen Niagara area, where an immense room was filled with drip stone and ribbons, cave formations just everywhere!

If you can only do one tour of this cave system, this is it! The Grand Avenue Tour. 4 hours, 4 miles, a constant 54 degrees. Not a bad hike at all.

And if you want a second tour, pick one of the lantern tours. Or The River Styx Tour. Or The Gothic Avenue Tour. Or The Historic Tour. Or The Domes and Dripstones Tour. Or The Frozen Niagara Tour. Or The Violet City Tour. Or…

They are all great, just pick some. 😁