Mammoth Cave National Park camping

 

We camped at Mammoth Cave over the weekend, from Friday afternoon to Sunday morning. Kim's dad put up a tent next to ours, and my parents got a cottage nearby and planned to hang out with us for a couple of days, too.

 

The campground near the visitors' center, Mammoth Cave Campground, is large and nice.  There are 105 sites on loops of road, and the campground can be pretty busy, but it was woodsy and pleasant.  I think the campground can get filled up most weekends in the summer, but it wasn't full while we were there, probably because of the weather.  The restroom facilities were well-kept and appeared to have been remodeled within the past few months, and the whole place was surprisingly litter-free.  I liked it.

 

About that weather…it was nice when we got there, partly cloudy and it felt good out.  After Kim and the girls put up the tent (while I took pictures of them and spectated), we went on a 1 ½ cave tour. When we came back out--surprise!--it was pouring rain. It kept raining, and didn't stop until the next afternoon.  By then, the inside of Kim's dad's tent was wet (he had slept more or less in a puddle on Friday night).  Since the rain didn't appear to be nearing an end, he decided to cut his losses and head home.  My parents did the same.  Why stay when all the activities (apart from cave tours) are outside, and it's raining?

 

Well, my daughters voted to stay, saying that they would still have fun in the tent even if there was nothing else to do.  Fortunately, the weather cleared for Saturday afternoon and evening, so we got to fix campfire pizzas and corn-on-the-cob.  We took a drive and crossed the Green River on the ferry, and went on a short hike with a park ranger, who talked about the cave systems, springs, the river, etc.

 

Before Kim's dad left, we went on a fun (and only slightly rainy) hike around Sloan's Crossing Pond, which was full of pond lilies and singing frogs.  We all went on two cave tours, which I enjoyed quite a bit.

 

I dozed off late Saturday night, sitting by the fire.  It was gorgeous out.  I finally went to bed in the tent, but was awakened a few hours later by more rain and thunderstorms.  It rained all night.  Then, around 8:00 a.m., a real bad storm hit.  We quickly got the girls into the minivan because large limbs were falling around the campground, and Kim and I packed everything up in a downpour.  Then we drove home; it rained the whole way.

 

These photos are from my phone.  I didn't take any photos with our camera, but I think Kim took a few.  I'll try to put some more up later.

 

Despite the weather, I had fun.  A lot of the fun is retrospective; it was sort of annoying or uncomfortable while it was happening, but not toooo bad, and it makes for good stories afterwards.  We only found one tick and, amazingly, I never saw a single mosquito.  I want to go again.