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 park. Two of them happened when I was a child, too young to really get it. Two of them were in Hawaii and were excursions from our cruise ship where I just got on the bus and then stepped out into the natural beauty of Haleakala and Hawaii Volcanoes, again not understanding that I was in a national park. And the Grand Canyon…I was chaperoning a group of teenagers and was so overwhelmed by the grandness of the canyon that the fact that it was a national park escaped me. But then I went to Mammoth Cave.

We spent a long weekend in Mammoth Cave, staying in a tiny yellow cabin on park property that we loved and eating our meals in the park restaurant. We were up-close and personal with the rangers since entering the cave required going on a guided ranger tour. Four cave tours and 10 miles of above-ground hiking later, we were described as “hard core” by one of the rangers and still love to brag amongst ourselves as being “ranger-certified hard core.” In Mammoth Cave we interacted with the park in every way, enjoying the wonder of the cave and the solitude of above-ground hiking in a park themed on a cave. We were immersed in the national park and began to understand how national parks work.

On top of all of that, the visitor center sold me a book on the history of the national park service. This was before Ken Burns made the story so well-known in his documentary. I was on fire! That book was completed before we left the park. Not only did I understand much better what a national park was, but I also came to understand just how many there are! And that set in motion a decade of national park exploring. We’ve been to 21 parks now and have more planned…all thanks to a visit to Mammoth Cave that inspired a passion for parks.

Sincerely,
Jodi