Since LS had enjoyed exploring caves and lava tubes in Hawaii, we decided we needed to take her to Mammoth Cave in Kentucky, since it is not too far from us. LS is also super into dinosaurs at the moment, so we paired it with a stop at Dinosaur World, also located in Cave City.
Cave City is about an hour and a half from Nashville, so it was a fairly quick drive up. We hadn’t told LS that we were going to Dinosaur World before Mammoth Cave, so she was super excited and surprised when we stopped there.
As an adult, this place is pretty kitschy, but LS loved it! We went down the dinosaur path first, and she applied all her dinosaur knowledge to guess which dinosaur was coming up next.
After we finished the walk, we did the gem mining. They basically give you a bag of sand with gems mixed in, and you just use the sifter to reveal all of the gems, which you can then put in a bag and keep.
Next, we headed over to the fossil dig, where you use a sifter to look for small things like shark teeth in the sand. You can only keep three per person here, however. I didn’t really think this part was worth it, but we had bought the tickets that included everything. I wouldn’t do this as a separate add-on.
After that, we walked through the little museum, where there’s an animatronic t. rex that roars as people walk by. LS loved this and wanted to walk by several times.
Then we headed over to the boneyard, where you can use a brush to dust off a “stegosaurus” skeleton.
We had a quick lunch at Cracker Barrel, then headed over to Mammoth Cave.
We parked at the Visitors’ Center and went inside and picked up a junior ranger handbook. We walked through the exhibits here and LS filled out what she could. Then we headed over to Shelter B to meet up with our tour group.
We went on the Domes and Dripstones tour. For this one, we rode a bus about eight minutes away and entered the cave through a manmade entrance. There were lots of stairs down with several tight squeezes but it eventually opened up into a bigger area with benches. We sat down and the guide talked while we waited for everyone to make it through. At one point, he turned off the lights, which LS had some anxiety about, but she liked when he held up a lighter to see.
From here, we headed up some stairs and through some more passageways to another area with benches. We sat and listened to another talk, which LS got a little restless during. She wanted to explore!
Luckily, that was the final stopping point. From there, we headed through the cave to the Frozen Niagara and then up and out of the cave. We boarded the bus and headed back to the Visitors’ Center. The whole tour took a little less than two hours.
When we arrived back, we walked down to the Historical Entrance to the cave, walked through, and took a few pictures, before heading back inside to finish up the junior ranger book.
LS turned it in, took her oath (mostly… she didn’t want to say “yeehaw!”), and received her shiny badge. Then we headed back to Nashville.