Mammoth Cave National Park – Hiking trail info for Mammoth Cave

The National Park Service offers several cave tours to visitors. Many of the most famous 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 and into muddy crawls and dusty tunnels.

In addition to touring the cave, visitors can hike, boat, canoe, kayak, swim and fish within the park boundaries.

Mammoth Cave National Park

Mammoth Cave National Park, located in central Kentucky, encompasses portions of the longest known cave system in the world. Established as a national park on July 1, 1941, Mammoth Cave became a World Heritage Site on October 27, 1981, and an International Biosphere Reserve on September 26, 1990.

Legend has it that the first European to discover Mammoth Cave was either John Houchin or his brother Francis Houchin, in 1797. While hunting, one of the brothers pursued a wounded bear to the cave's large entrance opening near the Green River.

Since then, the cave has become a curiosity for tourists around the world.

Today, Mammoth Cave National Park encompasses 52,835 acres of land above ground and is centered around the Green River. With a confirmed 367 miles of passageways it's by far the longest known cave system in the world, being well over twice as long as the second longest cave system, which is South Dakota's Jewel Cave with 150 miles of passageways.

In fact, according to the Park website, the cave is so long that if the second and third longest caves in the world were joined together, Mammoth Cave would still be the planet's longest cave and have nearly 100 miles left over!

Hiking at Mammoth Cave

Above ground, with more than 70 miles of trails, there are many opportunities for hiking at Mammoth Cave National Park. Some of the most popular trails in the park include the Sand Cave Trail, Sloan's Crossing Nature Trail, Turnhole Bend Nature Trail, Green River Bluffs Trail, Heritage Trail, Sal Hollow Trail and the Collie Ridge Trail.

Below is the list of trails in the park:

North Side Trails

Blair Spring Hollow, 1.2 miles

Buffalo Trail, 4 miles

Collie Ridge Trail, 4.3 miles

First Creek Hollow Trail, 6.7 miles

Good Spring Loop Trail, 7.9 miles

McCoy Hollow Trail, 6.3 miles

Raymer Hollow Trail, 4.7 miles

Sal Hollow Trail, 8.7 miles

Turnhole Bend Trail, 3.2 miles

Wet Prong-McCoy Hollow Spur, 0.4 miles

Wet Prong Trail, 4.9 miles

White Oak Trail, 2.7 miles

South Side Trails

Cedar Sink Trail, 0.8 miles

Sand Cave Trail, 0.1 miles

Sloan's Crossing Pond Trail, 0.4 miles

Turnhole Bend Nature Trail, 1 mile

Visitor Center Area Trails

Campground Trail, 0.5 miles

Dixon Cave Trail, 1.2 miles

Echo River Spring Trail, 0.4 miles

Echo River Trail, 2.2 miles

Green River Bluffs Trail, 1.1 miles

Mammoth Dome Sink Trail, 2 miles

River Styx Spring Trail, 0.6 miles

Heritage Trail, 0.3 miles