Mammoth Cave National Park Superintendent Barclay Trimble sees the stretch of underground land as a huge national attraction for Kentucky.
“Mammoth Cave National Park is a major destination for hundreds of thousands of people traveling to Kentucky each and every year,” Trimble said in a National Park Service (NPS) news release. “Our gateway communities are where these travelers can find a place to sleep and eat and make use of the many other local services and attractions that help drive a vibrant tourism and outdoor recreation industry in south-central Kentucky. There is no way we could provide a quality and memorable experience to our guests without them.”
A new NPS report says 516,000 people visited Mammoth Cave National Park in 2021, spending nearly $48 million in nearby communities, supporting 643 jobs and a cumulative benefit to the local economy of $69.2 million.
Once at the park, visitors are free to take tours or even camp under guided tours with varying lengths, depths of the cave and prices. Although tours vary through the seasons, camping on the park grounds is among the most popular experiences. Visitors can camp at one of the three developed campgrounds or in more than a dozen of the backcountry sites around the area.
Widely known as the longest cave in the world, the Department of the Interior also notes that Mammoth Cave is a limestone labyrinth with more than 400 explored miles. Park officials estimate a potential for another 600 miles in its system.
In addition, upward of 200 caves in the park exist as disconnected fragments of the larger Mammoth Cave system.
