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As you can imagine, THE thing to do at Mammoth Cave National Park is to go underground and inside Mammoth Cave!
And one of the ways you can go inside Mammoth Cave is by doing a lantern tour!
And it can be fun to do a lantern tour in Mammoth Cave!
If you do the Mammoth Cave lantern tour, it’s very likely it’ll leave a lasting impression on you!
Quite literally, you will be using a lantern to light your way through the cave!
In other cave tours, the trails are already lighted, so you can see as you’re walking through the cave just fine without holding any sort of lighting yourself.
Which tour is best at Mammoth Cave?
There are different types of Mammoth Cave tours that you can do.
And depending on the park ranger you speak to, you might be told that the best tour is a historic tour… or that the best tour is a formations tour… or that the best tour is a geology tour… or yes, that the best tour is a lantern tour!
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There was one park ranger who said the lantern tour is one of his favorite ways to explore Mammoth Cave.
This park ranger was hesitant to specify any individual cave tour as his favorite.
But he basically said that he likes any of the lantern tours because he likes the experience of walking through the cave by the light of a lantern only.
What are the lantern tours in Mammoth Cave National Park?
There are several Mammoth Cave lantern tours.
The lantern tours in Mammoth Cave National Park include the Violet City Lantern Tour, the Star Chamber Lantern Tour, and the Great Onyx Lantern Tour.
Mammoth Cave National Park lantern tours:
- The Violet City Lantern Tour is $25 per person. (3 hours, 3 miles, 160 steps, difficult)
- The Star Chamber Tour is $25 per person. (evening lantern tour, 2.5 hours, 1.5 miles 160 steps, moderate)
- The Great Onyx Lantern Tour is $23 per person. (2 hours 15 minutes, 1 mile, 82 steps, moderate)
While the Great Onyx Lantern Tour is offered by Mammoth Cave National Park, the tour does not take place in Mammoth Cave itself. You will be exploring another Kentucky cave called the Great Onyx Cave.
River Styx lantern
My lantern experience inside Mammoth Cave was by doing the River Styx Tour.
While you won’t be walking most of Mammoth Cave by lantern on the River Styx Tour, there is a small portion in which you will use only a lantern to light your way too.
Nearing the actual River Styx area of Mammoth Cave, it’s a lantern tour to go the final portion to River Styx!
I didn’t do a full “lantern tour” in Mammoth Cave National Park, but it did do a “lantern tour” at Jewel Cave National Monument, and it was fun!
So I can very much imagine that if you choose to do a lantern tour in Mammoth Cave National Park, you will have fun with it too!
What to wear to a Mammoth Cave lantern tour
It is said that inside Mammoth Cave is consistently in the mid-50s.
So, you will likely want to wear a sweatshirt or light jacket inside Mammoth Cave.
Also because you will be walking a lot, you will want to wear good walking shoes inside Mammoth Cave.
Also while we are talking about what to wear, we will also talk about what not to wear on your next cave trip after Mammoth Cave!
Take a full-body picture of yourself when you are inside Mammoth Cave!
This way, you will know what NOT to wear the next time you go inside a cave!
There’s a disease that’s deadly to bats that is known to exist in Mammoth Cave called white-nose syndrome. (This doesn’t affect humans at all.)
White-nose syndrome is thought to have been mostly spread from cave to cave by humans who have entered a cave with the fungus and then tracked it into another cave.
This is why it’s best not to wear the same shoes (or even clothes) that you wore into Mammoth Cave into any other cave in the world.
The most serious park I went to, Craters of the Moon National Monument, didn’t want you wearing ANYTHING into the Craters of the Moon caves that you wore into any cave in the last 15 years!
It was literally a question that was asked upon entry to the park!
So, by taking a picture of yourself, you’ll know what you wore into Mammoth Cave so you’ll know what not to wear to another cave!
Save the bats!
And that’s a little bit about doing a Mammoth Cave lantern tour!
I walked through Mammoth Cave with a lantern in May 2022. Your experience may vary!
More for planning your trip to Mammoth Cave:
- Best Mammoth Cave tours
- Mammoth Cave discovery tour
- Mammoth Cave frozen niagara
- Mammoth Cave fat man’s misery
- Above ground: Things to do in Mammoth Cave National Park
More national parks with caves:
HAPPY LANTERN WALK THROUGH MAMMOTH CAVE NATIONAL PARK!
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