The TJs Travel: Louisville, Kentucky and Mammoth Caves National Park

This time it was the NCAA Eastern Regional Meet that was the impetus for this trip. Brooke would be competing on May 26th in Bloomington, Indiana so we flew into Louisville a few days early so we could do some exploring in Kentucky before driving northward to Bloomington.

The first morning in Louisville, we had tickets for the Kentucky Derby Museum located on the grounds of the Churchill Downs racetrack. We enjoyed the exhibits and 360-degree immersive sound/video presentation that highlights the history of Churchill Downs and gives a peak into what the Kentucky Derby race day is all about. After our time in the museum, our guide took us onto the racetrack grounds where we saw some horses training. We decided that attending an actual Kentucky Derby race needs to be added to our bucket list.

A training session

The next stop in Louisville was the Louisville Slugger Museum and factory tour. The museum was informative, but the best part was the factory tour. Our guide showed us the bat making process from start to finish and we even received a mini bat as a souvenir.

After eating lunch at a soup/salad/sandwich spot just a few blocks from the Louisville Slugger Museum, it was time to start heading out of Louisville.

Our destination was Mammoth Caves National Park located about 2 hours southeast of Louisville, but along the way we realized that we were driving right past Abraham Lincoln’s birthplace, so we made a quick stop there. The site is a National Historic Park and contains a monument in which a replica has been built of the humble log cabin our 16th president was born in.

A replica of the cabin in which Abraham Lincoln was born

We arrived at Mammoth Cave National Park well before our reservation time for the Frozen Niagara cave tour, so we hiked the short 1.2-mile River Styx Spring Trail. This is a pretty walk through the forest that ends at a place where underground spring water emerges from a cave.

The trail to River Styx Spring

River Styx Spring

In front of the Historic Cave Entrance

When it was time for our tour, we boarded the NPS bus that took us to the entrance to the Frozen Niagara tour. On the bus, we learned that Mammoth Cave National Park has the longest underground cave system in the world with new sections being discovered each year. The Frozen Niagara tour is named as such because it takes visitors to a section of the cave system where formations have grown into what resembles the Niagara Falls. The inside of the cave is illuminated in an eerie red light, and we were able to see lots of stalactites and stalagmites. It was lots of fun!