Mammoth Cave National Park

Rolling hills, deep river valleys, and the world's longest known cave system. Mammoth Cave National Park is home to thousands of years of human history and a rich diversity of plant and animal life, earning it the title of UNESCO World Heritage Site and International Biosphere Region.

Riding guide

Horses provided

Park map

Trails

No trails synced for this park yet.

Campgrounds

• Houchin Ferry Campground

  12 sites

  The Houchin Ferry Campground lies next to the Green River at the former location of the Houchin Ferry. This campground is operated year-round and is located 15 miles from the Visitor Center and two miles east of Brownsville, KY. For campers who like it simple, these 12 tent-only campsites afford a quiet visit with drive-up access.

  Reserve a site

• Mammoth Cave Campground

  111 sites

  The Mammoth Cave Campground is ideal for visitors seeking an authentic national park experience while still having easy access to amenities, cave tours, and other park activities. This developed campground is located within ¼ mile from the visitor center and contains 111 primitive campsites with a mixture of tent only sites, group sites, tent or RV sites, and accessible sites. Rangers on duty in the campground kiosk are happy to provide information to make your stay a special adventure.

  Reserve a site

• Maple Springs Group Campground

  7 sites · 4 horse-friendly

  Maple Springs Group Campground lies on the park's north side, six miles from the visitor center and three miles north of Green River Ferry. This campground offers more secluded sites ideal for larger groups of campers and their horse companions. All sites have electric and water hookups for RVs. This campground is a natural launching-point for forays along the more than 70 miles of backcountry trails in Mammoth Cave National Park.

  Reserve a site

Points of interest

• Audubon and Little Bat Avenue - Beneath Your Feet

  POI

  On the Historic Tour route 149 feet beneath your feet is the intersection of Audubon and Little Bat Avenues. In the mid-1800’s cave owner Dr. John Croghan named Audubon Avenue after his friend, the famous ornithologist and Artist John James Audubon. In 1838 a visitor reported seeing “tens of thousands” of bats in Little Bat Avenue.

• Audubon Avenue

  POI

  Named for James Audubon, this passage houses several artifacts on display.

• Booth’s Amphitheatre

  POI

  Actor Edwin Booth once gave a recital of Hamlet's soliloquy from the natural stage formed by the rock outcropping.

• Booth's Amphitheatre - Beneath Your Feet

  POI

  Booth’s Amphitheatre, named after the 19th century Shakespearean actor Edwin Booth (brother of the infamous John Wilkes Booth). This is a large canyon passage there is a set of stairs that go up into Gothic Avenue, an upper oval shaped passageway; located near the stairs are also a second set of salt petre leaching vats.

• Broadway

  POI

  Broadway also known as main cave continues for miles undergrounds.

• Dennison Ferry

  POI

  Dennison Ferry Day Use area is in Mammoth Cave National Park, it is about a 20 minute drive north east from the Visitor Center. This area provides anglers with concrete steps to carry a small boat down to the water. There are picnic tables, park benches and fire rings for visitors to enjoy a beautiful day in the park. Camping is not permitted in this area. Bank fishing would be difficult with the steep incline to the river. There is not an active ferry at this location.

• Doyel Valley Overlook

  POI

  The Doyel Valley Overlook is the only scenic overlook accessible by vehicle within Mammoth Cave National Park. The overlook consists of two information panels, a picnic table. and access to the Mammoth Cave Hike and Bike trail. Access is along Mammoth Cave Parkway, 2.2 miles (3.5 km) south of the visitor center.

• Fat Man's Misery - Beneath Your Feet

  POI

  Fat Man’s Misery is a winding keyhole shaped passageway, the lower part of the passageway is about as wide as your hips or a little wider, above your hips the passage widens to about 5 ½ feet or more, at the very end, the floor comes up 2 feet for a 20 foot stoop walk. This is one of the most asked about and popular passages in the cave.

• Floyd Collins Homestead

  POI

  The Floyd Collins Homestead is the location of several important aspects of the Mammoth Cave story. It is the location of the entrance to Crystal Cave, a popular show cave run by the Collins Family in the early 20th century, but also served as the early headquarters of the Cave Research Foundation, who led the efforts in exploring Mammoth Cave and eventually found the connection that made Mammoth Cave the longest cave in the world.

• Frequently Asked Questions

  POI

  Frequently asked questions during the self-guided Extended Historic Tour of Mammoth Cave.

• Giant's Coffin - Beneath Your Feet

  POI

  In the early 1800s cave visitors called the huge, rectangular boulder 175 feet beneath your feet the “steamboat”; by the 1840s, guides and visitors decided the boulder looked more like a Giant’s coffin, the name is still used on the Historic Tour route today.

• Good Spring Baptist Church & Cemetery

  POI

  Good Spring Baptist Church had the largest membership of any church in the Green River Association from 1896 to 1900.

• Green River Bluffs Overlook

  POI

  Accessed along the 1.3 mile (2.1 km) Green River Bluffs Trail, the overlook provides views looking northeast along the Green River Valley. The site is also home to a long term air quality monitoring webcam.

• Green River Ferry

  POI

  Green River Ferry is an active ferry that is used to shuttle cars, hikers and bikers from one side of the river to the other. Located less than a 10min drive from the visitor center, there's also picnic tables and hiking trails. Fishing is permitted on the riverbank away from the ferry. This site is also usable by all trailed boats. When launching a trailed boat be sure not to disrupt the operation of the ferry, boats should be launched on the downstream side of the ferry.

• Historic Cottages

  POI

  Historic Cottages at Mammoth Cave National Park.

• Historic Entrance of Mammoth Cave

  POI

  The Historic Entrance to Mammoth Cave has welcomed thousands of visitors to the cave for over two hundred years.

• Houchin Ferry

  POI

  Houchin Ferry is a lovely area with a heavy canopy of trees, it has 12 campsites with a view of the Green River. Located about a 25 minute drive west from the visitor center, this is an ideal area for primitive camping or just to spend a day fishing and picnicking on the Green River. During the summer months this area is also used for canoe launching and removing. There is no longer an active ferry at this location.

• Houchin’s Narrows

  POI

  Entering Houchin's Narrows to the cave leave the light of the surface behind and step further into the darkness.

• Joppa Missionary Baptist Church & Cemetery

  POI

  The Joppa Missionary Baptist Church offers a glimpse into the early life of the settlers and their social history in the Mammoth Cave/Joppa Ridge/Elko area before becoming a part of the national park. The church is open for you to take a walk back in time and marvel at the workmanship of the early settlers. Located right behind the church is the Joppa Missionary Baptist Cemetery where you can visit some of the historic settlers of the days gone by.

• Little Bat Avenue

  POI

  Little Bat Avenue was once home to thousands of bats.

• Lookout Mountain

  POI

  Lookout Mountain may have been a entrance to Mammoth Cave thousands of years ago.

• Lookout Mountain - Beneath Your Feet

  POI

  Seventy feet beneath your feet is Lookout Mountain in Rafinesque Hall. The view of the cave from Lookout Mountain is a pile of rocks, known as breakdown. The pile of rocks demonstrates a place where a large trunk cave passage had collapsed. The passage once continued across this area, but when the valley cut downward, erosion cut into the cave itself and sealed it off.

• Lover's Leap - Beneath Your Feet

  POI

  Lover’s Leap is one of the cave’s oldest named landmarks – the name goes back to 1827. The route leading you to this section of the cave is lined with historic signatures, monuments and artifacts from early cave visitors. Overlooking the large canyon passageway, there is a slender pointed slab of rock jutting outward, this was named Lover’s Leap.

• Mammoth Cave Baptist Church & Cemetery

  POI

  Explore a local community history and visit the Mammoth Cave Baptist Church. It offers a wonderful glimpse into the early life of the settlers and their social history in the Mammoth Cave/Flint Ridge area before becoming a part of the national park. The church is nestled in a densely wooded area of the park and is open for you to take a walk back in time and marvel at the workmanship of the early settlers.

• Mammoth Cave Historic Entrance

  POI

  The Historic Entrance is the largest natural opening into the Mammoth Cave system and the site that has been used as the main entrance into the cave by Native Americans, saltpeter miners, cave explorers and travelers from all over the world.

• Mammoth Cave Historic Train

  POI

  On November 8, 1886 the first 8.7-mile excursion by train was made from Glasgow Junction (Park City) to the Mammoth Caves. For 45 years, the colorful rail cars made their way through rough terrain bringing thousands of visitors to the Mammoth Cave. Imagine the anticipation of the visitors as they took their first train ride through the dense woods to reach their destination.

• Mammoth Cave National Park

  POI

  Mammoth Cave National Park protects the world's longest cave and an incredible history of the people who have explored the cave and thrived on surrounding lands.

• Mammoth Cave Park Store

  POI

  The park store is operated by America’s National Parks™, an official non-profit partner of the National Park Service dedicated to supporting the educational mission of Mammoth Cave National Park.

• Methodist Church - Beneath Your Feet

  POI

  This is a large canyon room; the ceiling is 50 feet high. Facing the church, you are looking at a breakdown of large rocks. To the left is a prominent ledge 15 feet high called the pulpit. Along the ledge of the pulpit, the walls are blackened with the soot of lanterns used by the preacher to light up the pulpit.

• Old Guide's Cemetery

  POI

  The Old Guide’s Cemetery is a small, but significant, cemetery located within Mammoth Cave National Park. Buried here is Stephen Bishop, a famous 19th Century African-American cave guide. The Old Guide’s Cemetery also contains the burials of three tuberculosis patients who died during the Mammoth Cave Tuberculosis cave treatment experiment of 1842. It is located off of the beautiful Heritage Trail, a half mile long accessible trail through the woods.

• Pensacola Avenue - Beneath Your Feet

  POI

  Pensacola Avenue, a once -toured passage off the main trail, lies 253 feet beneath you on the Historic Tour route. A 1940’s tourist guidebook says: “The dry and sandy floor elicited the naming of this avenue after that pleasant city in Florida.”

• Rafinesque Hall

  POI

  Entering Rafinesque Hall you leave the paved trail behind and travel on packed dirt trails lined with rocks.

• River Hall - Beneath Your Feet

  POI

  River Hall lies 283 feet beneath your feet on the Historic Tour route. Usually dry, this passage fills with water when Mammoth Cave’s River Styx floods into it. Most of the cave stays dry during floods; River Hall is the only toured section of the cave in the floodplain.

• Rotunda

  POI

  The Rotunda is one of the largest rooms in the cave and lead to name "Mammoth Cave".

• Rotunda - Beneath Your Feet

  POI

  The Rotunda is a large circular room. In the center of the room are the leaching vats from the early salt petre operation. To the right are the two Great War Monuments dedicated in 1922 and 1929. It looks as though swirling water created the circular shape ceiling when, it’s where large slabs of limestone have fallen out creating a breakout dome.

• Saltpetre Vats (Booth’s)

  POI

  In addition to the Rotunda, Booth's Amphitheater served as a processing site for saltpetre.

• Saltpetre Vats (Rotunda)

  POI

  During the War of 1812, Mammoth Cave and some of the surrounding caves were the leading producers of the ingredients needed to make gunpowder for the war effort.

• Star Chamber - Beneath Your Feet

  POI

  When visiting Mammoth Cave’s Star Chamber, you may feel as though you are above ground gazing at the night sky. Instead, you will be standing 189 feet below this spot. Your eyes will be fooled by light specks on the ceiling where people in the past threw rocks to knock patches of sooted gypsum from the ceiling.

• Sunset Point

  POI

  Accessed by a short walk along the 1/2 mile (0.8 km) accessible Heritage Trail, the view from Sunset Point gives hikers vistas of the Green River Valley and surrounding hillsides.

• Sunset Terrace

  POI

  Sunset Terrace Lodging is located adjacent to the Lodge at Mammoth Cave in Mammoth Cave National Park.

• Tailwater Recreation Area

  POI

  The Tailwater Recreation Area provides an access point to the Nolin River before it flows in to Mammoth Cave National Park.

• TB Huts

  POI

  An experimental hospital deep inside Mammoth Cave built in the 1840s.

• TB Huts - Beneath Your Feet

  POI

  In the 1800’s some people believed Mammoth Cave might have healing properties. In 1842 cave owner and physician Dr. John Croghan created a hospital for tuberculosis patients 183 feet beneath your feet. Unfortunately, the cave holds no cure for tuberculosis. In less than a year, the patients left the underground hospital.

• The Acute Angle

  POI

  The cave makes a sharp turn here as the path leaves the pavement to travel deeper underground.

• The Bridal Altar - Beneath Your Feet

  POI

  In the 1800’s and 1900’s several couples got married 154 feet beneath your feet in Gothic Avenue at the dripstone formation known as “The Bridal Alter”.

• The Church

  POI

  Church services once held in the cave led to the name for this cave room.

• The Giant’s Coffin

  POI

  The Giant's Coffin has been a popular tour stop for over two centuries.

• The Lodge at Mammoth Cave

  POI

  The Lodge at Mammoth Cave provides food services, giftshops, ADA accessible rooms, and is the prime check in location for other cabin rentals in Mammoth Cave National Park

• Turnhole Bend Overlook

  POI

  Located on the southern side of the park on Brownsville Road, the 1/2 mile (0.8 km) Turnhole Bend Nature Trail takes hikers past deep sinkholes before leading to the overlook. The overlook consists of two benches and a informational sign, with views of the Green River and the north side of the park.

• Water Clock

  POI

  The slow dripping of water in this vertical cave shaft resembles the sound of a ticking clock.

• Watson Trace - Beneath Your Feet

  POI

  Researchers working 161 feet beneath your feet in 1998 felt a breeze coming from between some rocks – a hint that a void lay beyond. Moving rocks, they crawled into a passage shown on no map. Their lights found burnt touches, untouched since the last visitors left them – over 2000 years earlier. This section of the cave is not open to the public.

• Woodland Cottages

  POI

  Woodland Cottages in Mammoth Cave National Park.

Things to do

• Attend a Ranger-led Program

  Attending a ranger-led program in the park is a great way to discover new things and learn more about the Mammoth Cave National Park.

  Duration: 10-60 Minutes

• Become a Mammoth Cave Junior Ranger

  Do you want to explore, learn about, and protect Mammoth Cave? If so, become a Mammoth Cave Junior Ranger! The Junior Ranger activity book is appropriate for all ages and is a great way to get more in-depth knowledge about the world’s longest cave and to learn about the natural wonders of the park.

• Cave Tours

  Join a ranger as you discover the complex history and intricate geology of the worlds longest cave system.

  Duration: 1-6 Hours

• Dennison Ferry to Green River Ferry

  This popular river trip takes paddlers from the Dennison Ferry Day Use Area to the Green River Ferry.

  Duration: 150-240 Minutes

• Explore the park on Horseback

  Mammoth Cave National Park is an exceptional destination for anyone who loves to see the world from the back of a horse.

• Explore Wildflowers at Cedar Sink

  Stunning rock faces, cave springs, and geological panoramas, you will experience a wide array of seasonal wildflowers and biodiversity.

  Duration: 45-60 Minutes

• Green River Ferry to Houchin Ferry

  This longer section of the Green River is less traveled then the popular Dennison Ferry to Green River Ferry trip.

  Duration: 4-6 Hours

• Houchin Ferry to Brownsville

  This short trip travels along the Green River from Houchin Ferry inside Mammoth Cave National Park to the former site of Lock and Dam #6 or the Brownsville boat ramp.

  Duration: 90-120 Minutes

• Mammoth Cave Railroad Bike and Hike Trail

  Originally opened in 1886 the Mammoth Cave Railroad brought early tourists to Mammoth Cave and other neighboring caves in the area. Today, a portion of the path of the former Mammoth Cave Railroad has been converted into a 9-mile hike and bike trail.

• Nolin River Dam to Houchin Ferry

  This trip starts at the Tailwater Recreation Area below the Nolin River Dam north of the park.

  Duration: 4-6 Hours

• Planning Your River Trip

  Over 30 miles of the Green and Nolin Rivers trace through the Mammoth Cave National Park and offer a wealth of recreational opportunities.

• Ride the Big Hollow Trail

  Explore the north side of the park on your mountain bike on the only mountain bike trail in the park.

• River Safety and Regulations

  Safety is your responsibility. Follow these tips for a safe and enjoyable river trip.

• Road Biking

  For visitors wishing to travel to Mammoth Cave National Park on two wheels instead of four, the park roadways offer miles of scenic and forested landscape to enjoy on the ride.

• See the Stars

  Since prehistoric times, humans have looked up at the night sky and pondered the wonders of the universe. People have used the stars and planets to navigate, keep track of time, and to connect with other cultures. Regardless of your reason, Mammoth Cave National Park provides an ideal place for stargazing.

• Take a Ridge-top Walk to Sunset Point

  Visitors to Mammoth Cave National Park Marvel over the Green River Valley while visiting the popular overlook, Sunset Point.

  Duration: 30-60 Minutes

• Viewing Park Wildlife

  Mammoth Cave is home to a wide variety of plant and animal life ranging from rare exotic cave species to more common woodland creatures. While viewing wildlife can be a highlight of any park visit, it is important to remember that animals in the park are wild. Precautions must be taken to keep not only you, but the wildlife safe.

Visitor centers

• Mammoth Cave Visitor Center

  The park visitor center is the central point for visitors to orient themselves to what lies both above and below the surface at Mammoth Cave. Situated just up the hill from the cave's Historic Entrance, the visitor center is the departure point for all cave tours, and offers exhibits to prepare you for discovery. You can also meet a ranger for a talk or a hike. Gifts, restrooms, permits and information are available and visitor amenities are offered by the nearby Lodge at Mammoth Cave across the footbridge.

  Get directions

Webcams

• Green River Bluffs & Air Quality

  Currently unavailable.

Hours of operation

Activities

Weather

Contact

Photos

Directions

DO NOT FOLLOW YOUR GPS! From the North: Take Interstate 65 to Exit 53 (Cave City Exit). Turn right onto KY-70. Follow 70/255 as it becomes the Mammoth Cave Parkway in the park. Follow the Mammoth Cave Parkway to the Visitor Center. From the South: Take Interstate 65 to Exit 48 (Park City Exit). Turn left onto KY-255 and follow 255 as it becomes the Park City Road into the park. Follow Park City Road until it joins the Mammoth Cave Parkway; turn left. Follow the Mammoth Cave Parkway to the Visitor Center.