For a weekend get-a-way, we headed to Mammoth Cave National Park in Kentucky! My twin brother lives in Nashville, Tennessee so we thought this would be a great location for all of us to meet up since Mammoth Cave is only an hour from Nashville and about a 4 hour drive from St. Louis. My friend, Michelle, and her boyfriend Andy even came along too!

We arrived at the park midday on Friday so we hiked some of the shorter trails, not located near the Visitor’s Center. We hiked the Turnhole Bend Trail, the Cedar Sink Trail, Sloans Crossing Pond and the Sand Cave Trail. My favorite trail out of these was the Cedar Sink Trail since on the loop part of the trail has a lot of neat rock formations.

 ^ Sloans Crossing Pond ^

^ Turnhole Bend Trail ^

^ Cedar Sink Trail ^

On Saturday, we headed back to the park for our cave tours. My parents and friends signed up for the Frozen Niagara tour. This tour is about an hour and fifteen minutes long and one of the easiest cave tours offered. It offers a good introduction to the cave and also showcases the impressive Frozen Niagara formation. My brother and I did the Domes and Dripstones tour which is about two hours long. I really liked this tour. For the first part of the tour, you descend approximately 280 stairs through tight spaces and interesting rock formations. If you are at all scared of tight spaces, this tour is not for you LOL! At times, the passage way is only as wide as your are! The tours are reasonably priced and since it is a National Park, I recommend stopping here.

While the other half of the group was on the cave tour, my brother and I hiked the trails around the Visitor’s Center. You can see the trails we hiked below on the map.We first stopped at the Historic Entrance.

And then we saw the River Styx Spring.

Along the River Springs Trail, we found this old building and then finally the Echo River Spring.

One other note, as most of you know, my dog is my traveling companion and sometimes traveling with a dog can be difficult. We stayed at the Holiday Inn Express in Bowling Green since they are a dog friendly hotel. They were very accommodating!

All in all, we had a really great trip. It was great to see my brother and travel as a family together! Ellie had a great time too!