It's been great to be back in a National Park for my second Summer internship at Mammoth Cave National Park! I started my internship by making the drive down from Pennsylvania all the way to Cave City, Kentucky. I stayed in Cave City for a few days prior to starting my internship so that I had time to get familiar with the park and explore the caves. The name Mammoth Cave might be confusing to some. To the disappointment of the occasional visitor, the name has nothing to do with the ancient animal. Rather, the second, less commonly used definition of the word mammoth is at play here, "something immense of its kind." With more than 400 miles of known passageways, Mammoth Cave is not only massive, but the largest known cave system in the world.
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| Looking out towards the Historic Entrance |
On my first day in Mammoth Cave I went on the Historic Cave tour. The tour is known as such because of its use of the "historic entrance." While many entrances to the cave system have since been discovered or created, the historic entrance was the first known entrance to the cave and the one most used by guides and visitors for well over one hundred years. Only upon entering the cave did I appreciate just how large it really is. In addition to seeing the cave, I also learned an abbreviated history of the cave system, its long history of tourism, and the creation of the National Park in 1941.
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| Looking up in one of the larger chambers of the cave |
The following day, I went on a second cave tour, "Domes and Dripstones." This tour explored a different section of the cave and focused more on the geology of the cave system as well as the geologic formations in that section. The tour began through the "New Entrance," a long, winding metal staircase leading down through the top of a natural dome deep into the cave.
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