Park Units 85 & 86: Mammoth Cave National Park and Abraham Lincoln Birthplace NHS

8/23/17. We started out early this morning so we would arrive on time for our 8:30 am Cave Tour at Mammoth Cave. It's always refreshing to visit a National Park since they seem to have more money and better services. This was no exception! People were lined up out the door to purchase tickets for tours, but we smugly picked up our tickets that we ordered online a month ago. (I was so glad!). 

We took the Niagra Tour with two of the rangers who led us into the cave through an easy entrance. We went through a few tight passageways and got to see some tiny bats on the ceiling as well as "cave crickets".
The formations were as impressive as we expected -- and different from the other caves we visited last year (especially Wind Cave). 





There were many areas of flowstone. According to the National Caves Association, Flowstones are composed of sheetlike deposits of calcite formed where water flows down the walls or along the floors of a cave. They are typically found in "solution caves", in limestone, where they are the most common speleothem. However, they may form in any type of cave where water enters that has picked up dissolved minerals. Flowstones are formed via the degassing of vadose percolation waters."

The highlight of this tour was the massive 30 foot flowstone formation that looked like a waterfall. We were able to take stairs down underneath this. 

The celings of the cave was so interesting! I'm not sure what any of these formations are called, but it was fascinating. 

The tour was just long enough for us to get our fill of being underground and seeing a slightly different kind of cave. The tour was excellent in providing information and giving us time to explore.

Next, we headed to

Abraham Lincoln's Birthplace National Historic Site. This is an unusual site in the middle of a very rural area. There is a large neo-classical monument build to honor Lincoln. The monument was built and commemorated in the 1920's. We enjoyed looking at the photographs of the presidents and guests who visited the site at the time. 

The monument is strange because it looks like it belongs in Washington, D.C., not rural Nebraska. It is also strange because there is a recreated log cabin inside of it. 

The visitor's center has a short film and exhibits showing what life would have been like when Lincoln was born in this area. The original spring that attracted the family to this land is still on the property.

This unit was interesting in many ways - the political culture of the 1920's that led to this memorial, the beautiful land, and the opportunity to imagine life in earlier times.