This afternoon Lin and I went into Mammoth Cave for three hours by only the light of lanterns.
It was awesome.
Once a day there’s a special cave tour led by Mammoth Cave National Park where you travel three miles underground with only ten lanterns (for a group of ~40 people). I got to carry one (as in, Lin and I meticulously planned it so we would be first when the lanterns were passed out ensuring I had one between the two of us). The lanterns are actual flames, not electric, and the effect in the enormous cave caverns is eerie and terrific.
We also got to see the consumption huts . . . built by a doctor who once owned the cave in the 1840s who thought that bringing tuberculosis patients to live in the cave air would possibly be a cure. It was not.
At one point one of the guides took all the lanterns away (through one of the smaller passages), so we could sit entirely in the dark.
At another point, we got to see a waterfall in the cave. The guide put her flashlight at the bottom of it so it lit up and the water sparkled in the otherwise dark cavern.
There was a lot more, but the feeling I’m left with is awe. I was so happy and excited to be there the whole tour, even though my feet are very sore (we did a long hike this morning and this three-mile hike through the cave was also strenuous at times with major inclines and declines in the last mile).
Highly recommend it if you find yourself in Kentucky.
With Love,
Natalie