Adventures Under Ground!

In July 2018, a guide lead 12 people into a cave. They all survived. Think I’m talking about the Thai soccer team that was trapped in a cave for 18 days? Nope! This is a story about a trip my mom and I took to visit Carter Caves State Park in Kentucky. Fortunately, our cave adventures were much less life-threatening than what those young boys had to endure in Thailand. There was no monsoon in our case, and no one had to come to our rescue. Read on to find out more about our adventures at this very interesting state park.

When people think of visiting caves in Kentucky, most automatically think of Mammoth Cave National Park. After all, it is the longest cave system in the world! While I enjoy Mammoth Cave, it tends to be overcrowded, especially during the summer. I remember on a visit a few years ago seeing a tour of hundreds of people descending into the cave. I much prefer to head east to the lesser-known Carter Caves State Park. The caves may be smaller, but they are just as interesting as Mammoth Cave. Tours also tend to be much smaller at Carter Caves. It is not uncommon to find yourself on a tour with just 12 or even fewer people, making for a more personal experience. There are multiple caves open for touring within the state park. We visited three caves on our trip.

Cascade Cave

The first cave we toured was Cascade Cave. You buy your tickets at the welcome center, but then drive about 10 minutes to get to the entrance of the cave. The tour is about 75 minutes. It is a guided walking tour. You don’t get dirty. Anyone can do this tour as long as you are ok climbing up and down some stairs.  If you like seeing beautiful cave formations, this is the cave to visit! The cave is full of stalactites and stalagmites and there is even an underground waterfall!

After you finish your tour, I recommend taking a hike on the Box Canyon Trail. It’s less than a mile long, but very interesting. You will find yourself walking under a rock bridge and climbing over boulders into the canyon. It is a great trail to see lots of interesting rock formations without much of a time commitment.

Bat Cave

Our second cave tour was the Bat Cave. It was called the Bat Cave Walking Tour, but it is not the same type of walking tour as in Cascade Cave. Bat Cave does not have electric lights. We all wore hard hats with headlamps. And in this tour, you should expect to get muddy and wet! Old clothes are essential. While this “walking tour” does not require crawling like many “wild cave” tours, we did have to duck-walk through many parts of the cave, climb or scoot over some rocks, and walk through water. We even had water all the way up to our chests at one point! One young girl on our tour was a little scared at first, but the guide was good about helping her along and she did a great job. My mom and I both agreed that this was a highlight of our trip because it was a different experience. While both of us had gone on caving trips either in college or in Girl Scouts, it had been many years for both of us, and we had never done anything like this together, either. So it was fun to be able to share this experience (and the resulting sore muscles later)! And yes, we did see a few bats in the Bat Cave!

This tour is only available during the summer months due to hibernating bats in the winter. You do need to sign up in advance and meet up at the welcome center 15 minutes prior to the starting time for a quick orientation and to sign waivers.

X Cave

Named such because it is shaped like an X, this is Carter Caves’ most popular cave tour. It is also a pretty short tour, lasting just 45 minutes. Like Cascade Cave, this is a guided walking tour and you will not get wet or muddy. The interesting thing about X Cave is it is actually two different caves that joined together in the middle to form an X shape. One side of the cave is a wet, “living” cave with many interesting formations. The other side of the cave is dry and does not have any formations at all! We did this tour on our last day, right before heading home. It is offered year-round.

There are other caves in the state park including Saltpetre Cave (which offers guided tours and crawling tours), Horn Hollow Cave (self-guided), and Laurel Cave (self-guided), but we did not have time to visit those on this trip! If you visit Carter Caves State Park, please keep in mind that only X Cave and Cascade Cave are open for tours in the winter months.

What we learned about caves:

• There are two criteria that make something a cave:
  1. There has to be an opening large enough for a human to get through.
  2.  You must be able to experience complete darkness inside.
• There are three places on earth where you can experience complete darkness:
  1. A cave
  2. The bottom of the ocean
  3. Inside the Amazon Rainforest at night

Hiking

Besides our cave adventures, we also had some fun above ground. Carter Caves State Park has a lot of interesting hiking trails.

Natural Bridge

On our first day, we took the Natural Bridge Trail. This easy, half-mile trail starts behind the welcome center. It leads you over the top of the bridge and then under. It is the only natural bridge in Kentucky that cars can drive across!

Horn Hollow Trail

We hiked part of this 2 mile trail while waiting to go on one of the cave tours, then completed the trail on our final morning prior to the X Cave tour. If you want to visit either of the self-guided caves, this trail will lead you to those. You do need to register at the welcome center if you plan to do those caves and you need a flashlight. We did not bring flashlights because we didn’t know this was even an option, so we did not visit those caves on our hike.

The 4C’s Trail

The Carter Caves Cross Country Trail (commonly known as the 4C’s Trail) is 8.3 miles long. The trail connects with other trails within the state park and allows you to see some of the beautiful back-country at Carter Caves. Expect to see natural bridges (Fern Bridge and Raven Bridge–two of the three bridges of the Three Bridges Trail), a swinging suspension bridge, a rock arch called the Shangri-la Arch, Smokey Valley Lake, and much more!

This trail has been synonymous with failure for me ever since I first attempted it with my dad and brother when I was 12 years old. To prepare us for an upcoming backpacking trip, he decided to have us hike this trail with him while wearing backpacks packed with things we would use on an overnight trip. All went well until we crossed over some water and couldn’t find the trail on the other side! We ended up getting lost and trudging down a long road with the sun blasting down on us and our drinking water getting too hot to be refreshing.

Twenty years later, I was excited about the prospect of finally completing the trail. It seems it has changed a bit over the years. I don’t remember the suspension bridges existing back then, and the trail blazes were much more clear this time around. We did not get lost! We had an excellent hike, although we found the final mile or two to be the least exciting part of the hike. I will say if you plan to do this trail, be sure to allow a full day and pack plenty of food and water.

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We had a great time visiting Carter Caves. If you choose to go, you will not be at a loss for things to do. Besides the cave tours and hiking, they also offer canoeing and kayaking excursions, rock climbing and rappelling, horseback riding, a pool, and fishing. During the summer, there are nightly activities for the whole family to enjoy, such as tie-dying. You can stay in the campground, in the lodge, or in a cabin with a kitchen, showers, and air conditioning! You will not be disappointed!