Best things to do in Mammoth Cave National Park

Winding through the ground for nearly 652 km (405 mi), the World Heritage Site Mammoth Cave claims the title, by a significant margin, of longest cave system on the planet. You won’t be the only one surveying the cave. Exploration continues constantly, so the official length of the system continues to grow with the discovery of new passageways, tunnels, and caverns. In addition to thousands of bats, the subterranean labyrinth possesses a nearly 6,000-year history of humans, beginning with pre-Columbian natives of the region. The National Park Service runs multiple versions of its cave tours of varying length, which can take you on popular paths or on more adventurous routes that require some tight squeezes and nimbleness. Watch for geological mineral and rock formations scattered throughout the cave.

Diamond Caverns in Park City, Kentucky was discovered on July 14, 1859. Tours are available year around; closed Thanksgiving, Christmas Eve, and Christmas. Tours last one hour and is a half mile round trip.

Part of the guided tours of Mammoth Cave, Fat Man's Misery is a narrow passageway inside the cave that takes about 15 minutes to navigate through. Rather narrow at the bottom with limited foot space, and opening up above the waist, the passageway requires quite a bit of twisting, turning sideways, bending at the waist, and ducking under low ceiling in some places. Not for the claustrophobic.