Mammoth Cave, Kentucky

Visiting the National Parks is one of our objectives as we travel the country, and while in Kentucky we had the exciting opportunity to visit Mammoth Cave National Park. Located in south central Kentucky near the Green River, Mammoth Cave is the world's longest known cave system, with more than 390 miles explored (thus it's name, Mammoth - not for the woolly mammoth). Some notable features of the cave, such as Grand Avenue, Frozen Niagara, and Fat Man's Misery, can be seen on lighted tours ranging from one to six hours in length. Two tours, lit only by visitor-carried paraffin lamps, are popular alternatives to the electric-lit routes. Several "wild" tours venture away from the developed parts of the cave into muddy crawls and dusty tunnels. We opted to take two of the tamer electrically lit tours, which gave us a good feel for the cave structure and the chance to walk deep into the heart of the labyrinth. The walk from the Visitors Center to the cave entrance (literally a steel door cut into the side of a hill) was lush and green, and the weather outside was thick, humid, and oppressively warm.  It was sweet relief going down into cool stony cavern, where the temperatures were in the mid 50's, and kind of shocking to climb back out into the heat after spending several hours underground. Although Mammoth Cave didn't compare in absolute beauty to Carlsbad Caverns, it was still a very worthy exploration.

 

Frankfurt, Kentucky

The State House in Frankfurt, Kentucky sits atop a hill, and the July day we chose to visit was very hot and very humid.  It was quite an effort climbing those steps to reach the cool interior of the capitol. From the outside, the resemblance to the capitol building in Washington D.C. is quite striking, not only with the similar dome structure, but also the way the two side wings spread so far out from the main entrance. Like many capitols, the one in Frankfurt is situated near a river, in this case, the Kentucky River. The Capitol Building is influenced from important places of history and architecture from all over the world, including France, Greece, and Italy. Marble stairways, banisters, and balustrades at either end imitate the staircases of the Grand Opera House in Paris. The capitol rotunda, which is topped by a massive 190' dome is copied from the one over Napoleon's tomb in the Hotel des Invalides in Paris.  On the nearby grounds surrounding the capitol complex is a huge floral clock, that actually keeps real time!