- State: KY
- NPCA Region: Southeast
- Est. Date: 1941
Air Quality Conditions
View the Polluted Parks ReportVisibility
Unsatisfactory
Health
Unsatisfactory
Nature
Significant Concern
Climate Change Threats
Explore Mammoth Cave National Park, the longest cave system on Earth, featuring the richest known habitat for cave wildlife in the world.
It may be difficult to think of caves as spacious and grand, but these are no ordinary caves. Humans first discovered this complex limestone labyrinth some 4,000 years ago beneath the Green River Valley of Edmonson County, Kentucky. To this day, explorers have yet to find an end to it, despite mapping more than 400 miles of passageways.
Denizens of Darkness
Mammoth Cave is home to a variety of animals known as troglobites — wildlife species that are specially adapted to live in a cave environment. These residents include eyeless fish, cave salamanders and an endangered albino cave shrimp.
Greetings from Mammoth Cave National Park
I had visited five national parks before I visited Mammoth Cave, including the Grand Canyon, but it was at Mammoth Cave that I truly fell in love with national parks. You see, in none of my five previous park visits had I really understood that I was in a national…
More about Mammoth Cave
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Magazine Article Hidden Names, Hidden Stories A journey to the depths of Mammoth Cave to record signatures left by Civil War soldiers.
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Read more about Fighting Fluff
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Read more about In the Dark
Magazine Article In the Dark How do animals adapt to cave life?
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