Mammoth Cave Grand Avenue Tour

Cave City, KY

Jul 26, 2019

Mammoth Cave National Park

On Friday morning, we drove to Mammoth Cave National Park where we had tickets for the 9:45 a.m. Grand Avenue tour. The Grand Avenue tour is a 4-hour, 4-mile tour that begins at the Carmichael entrance(37.167532, -86.091813) and ends at the Frozen Niagara exit(37.149369, -86.058033).

We picked up our tickets and went through the exhibits that are located in the Visitor Center.

Mammoth Cave National Park Visitor Center

After touring the exhibits, we went to Shelter B at the appointed time to await the shuttle bus that would take us to the Carmichael entrance.

Grand Avenue ticket, Mammoth Cave National Park
Katherine waiting for the bus for our cave tour
Tour Guide Michael Knapp, Mammoth Cave National Park

Our tour guide, Michael, was very enthusiastic and did a great job keeping his energy up throughout the 4-hour tour.

Carmichael Entrance, Mammoth Cave National Park

Carmichael Entrance, Mammoth Cave National Park

Section of cave shortly after entering the Carmichael entrance, toward Cleaveland Avenue.

Section of cave shortly after entering the Carmichael entrance, toward Cleaveland Avenue.

Gypsum

Gypsum

Mammoth Cave

After the first hour of the tour, we made it to the Snowball Room where there were modern restrooms and we took a small break. There was an elevator located there, in case there were any squeamish folks on the tour who wanted to make an early exit.

There was also a small break with modern restrooms after the second hour of the tour, after we had gone up Mount McKinley.

Frozen Niagara, Mammoth Cave

Frozen Niagara, Mammoth Cave

Frozen Niagara, Mammoth Cave

Frozen Niagara, Mammoth Cave

Frozen Niagara, Mammoth Cave
Mammoth Cave

After exiting the cave, we waited for the rest of our tour group to make it out of the cave and took the bus back to the visitor center.