Cool Caves In Kentucky

This is what it looked like during our tour.

Near Brownsville, Kentucky, there is a very big cave called Mammoth Cave. It is the longest cave system in the world. It looks like there are tan and brown popsicles hanging from the celling and coming up from the ground.
Those popsicle-looking things are called stalagmites and stalactites.

These are stalactites.

An easy way to remember the difference is that the word stalagmites has a G in it to remind you they grow from the Ground. Stalactites has a C in it to remind you of the word Celling, and stalactites grow from the celling. There are also stalagmites that are so tall, that they attach to a stalactite and are going from the ground, all the way to the roof.

This is the Frozen Niagara section.

There are bats living in between the stalactites and in many other places in Mammoth Cave. There are many species of bats living throughout the cave.

There are areas around Mammoth Cave that have names, for example the Jellyfish area, looks like a bunch of flying jellyfish above you. Also, to the left, a picture of Frozen Niagara.
There are many other places that look like jail bars, pencils, and even Jabaa the Hutt's skin!
There was one area (that had no name) -we were not allowed in it-and it had a bunch of stalactites and stalagmites connected forming a jail cell-looking mini cave. The mini cave was about 5 feet wide and 9 feet tall.




On our trip to Mammoth cave, we had to wash our feet on a walk-through shoe cleaner. To use it, you walk on a small platform with soapy water on it. You had to wash your feet in case they had many germs on them and you would carry them into the bats' home. I thought the shoe-washing platform was really cool and fun.

We had to also wash our feet on the way out in case we took germs from the bats. It was just the same thing as before we went in.

There are bats living in the mini-caves and in between other places throughout Mammoth Cave. The Myotis sodalis, Myotis grisescens, Myotis lucifugus, Pipistrellus subflavus, eastern small-footed bat, Lasiurus borealis, and Eptisecus fuscus are some species of bats that live in Mammoth Cave. There are 40 other species of mammals living in Mammoth Cave National Park. They include raccoons*, opossums*, pygmy shrew*, White-tailed deer (who live in the national park, but not in the cave), bobcats*, coyotes*, foxes*, muskrats*, gray squirrels*, flying squirrels*, rabbits*, skunks*, beaver*, mink*, weasels*, groundhogs*, chipmunks*, moles*, voles*, mice*, and woodrats*.

* = Go in and out of the cave but live outside

There were many, many other cool places in Mammoth Cave.
This celling-canyon looking thing, I found really cool. This picture was taken straight up at  the roof.

The Jr. Ranger oath.