MAMMOTH CAVES TOUR KIDS – Driving across country from Cleveland, Ohio to Orland, Florida meant several stops on the way down to try and break up the drive. So our family’s first stop following Maker’s Mark, was to visit the Mammoth Caves region.
Our family elected to go on the Frozen Niagara tour due to its late start time (4:20 PM EST) and ease for navigating with small children.
The Frozen Niagara tour lasts for an hour and a half, adults cost $10 each, and children under 5 are free.
Guests take a bus to the entry of the cave, which is secured by a locked door. Park rangers let you into the cave, and the last person in is required to close the door, which automatically locks.
Then we were escorted down into the cave, where we stopped at several locations along the way.
Our tour guide was also an area resident, as was his family since the slave days. So he was able to provide a lot of interesting information associated with the area and how it impacted his ancestry.
We learned how the cave used to be privately owned, and was named Frozen Niagara because of the final area of the tour. The then owner was a clever business person, coining the phrase to drum up business for the caves.
Eventually, the United States government came in took over all the property surrounding the caves by eminent domain.
The Frozen Niagara tour was perfectly timed to give little ones just enough interaction with the caves to learn from the experience. Our boys were even enticed to climb the 45 stairs down (and then back up) to the base of the Frozen Niagara room. However, unfortunately, you can not wear toddlers in backpacks any longer in the caves. Therefore, the caves may not be the best atmosphere for those around 1 year of age. Our one year old is at the age of wanting to explore, and typically not liking to be held. So it was a little bit of a struggle to entertain him in an environment of “do not touch” and large falloffs into caverns.
Do note, the area is undergoing a large tick problem, and at least one person from our party had one crawling on his hand during the visit. Be prepared to either dress appropriately and/or try and stay away from the grass to avoid interaction and possible contamination from the ticks.
No one told us Barbosa would be hanging out in the cave.
Someday when our boys are older, I would enjoy revisiting and doing some of the more adventuresome tours when time would permit.
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Source: InACents