“Welcome to cave life,” our park ranger guide said as her colleague turned out the few lights that illuminated the section of the cave. “This is complete darkness.”

Even after 30 seconds or more to adjust, I was still completely unable to see anything. Absolutely no light was present. I, my boyfriend, John Derrick, and four other friends from the geography club at USC were on a tour of the longest cave in the world, Mammoth Cave, Kentucky.

On our first tour, the Frozen Niagara Tour, we descended 250 feet into the cave. The entrance into the cave was facilitated by metal stairs interspersed with areas of cave floor. This was a “wet” tour which was evident by the occasional drop of water on my head. Movement was restricted in places, requiring tourists to shift and duck in order to make it through certain areas.

According to scientists, the limestone that lies underneath the Mammoth Cave area was formed by a shallow sea that existed 350 million years ago. The cave owes its existence to the persistent dripping of water for over 70 million years. The limestone slowly dissolves when rain water mixed with a small amount of carbon dioxide gas creates a mild carbonic acid. At 360 feet below there flows a river. A tour is given to the river but only during certain times of the year. Even deeper, more streams work to carve out new passageways. More than 350 miles of Mammoth Cave have been explored and scientists believe it could possibly extend as far as 600 miles.

A portion of the Frozen Niagara has created this curtain of stalactites. The highlight of the tour came near the end as we made our ascent to the surface to view the Frozen Niagara. The Frozen Niagara is a mass of stalagmites and stalactites formed by millions of years of dripping water. Their molded, colorful surfaces made the temptation to touch nearly unbearable, but we were forbidden by the rangers. Prolonged exposure to the natural oils and acids in the human touch can damage the formations.

These green plants have survived in the cave as a result of the artificial spot lights. After traversing a total of 500 stairs we were guided onto a yellow park bus and back to the visitors center. Mammoth Cave was given national park status in 1926. The over 53,000–acre park is divided by the Green River which helps feed the underground cave waters. We had half an hour to explore the visitors center before our next tour, the Historic Tour, began.

Many of the passageways on the trip down were quite narrow with low ceilings.

(Next week: Deeper into the cave

and its history)