Visiting Mammoth Cave National Park as a Wheelchair User

Caving is something that I never thought I’d be able to do as a wheelchair user. After all, how could I possibly get into a cave with a 400 lb powered wheelchair? It seemed completely impossible throughout most of my life, but over the past few years, I’ve been able to visit a few different wheelchair accessible caves. I’ve been to Cathedral Caverns in Alabama, Luray Caverns in Virginia, and even Harrison’s Cave in Barbados, but the cave that I’ve wanted to explore the most is Mammoth Cave in Kentucky. 

I love visiting national parks in the U.S. and am always incredibly impressed by them, so I was happy to discover that Mammoth Cave is a national park. “If it’s a national park, it has to be AMAZING”, I thought. And it turns out that I was correct! 

During my recent trip in Kentucky, I had the chance to visit Mammoth Cave National Park and it surpassed all of my expectations. From start to finish, it was one of the most wheelchair accessible caving experiences I’ve ever enjoyed, but I also learned that there is much more to this national park than just the cave. You can also roll on accessible trails, tour museums, and dine at the park’s restaurants to name a few activities. 

In my blog post below, I’ll share my experience with you and hopefully it will help you plan your own trip to this special place in Kentucky. If you are planning to visit Mammoth Cave National Park as a wheelchair user, here’s everything you need to know –

Wheelchair Accessible Mammoth Cave National Park 

I started my trip in Kentucky by being based in the city of Louisville, so Mammoth Cave was only about an hour and a half drive away. It was easy to get to from Louisville and the first stop in the park for my mom and I was the big Mammoth Cave National Park welcome sign. Whenever I visit a new national park, I try to get a photo with that park’s sign. 

There were accessible parking spots at the sign and a paved path led to the sign as well. I was able to roll over to the sign for a quick photo and afterwards, I noticed that a wheelchair accessible boardwalk path started from this same area. It was called the Sand Cave Trail and since we had some time to spare before our Mammoth Cave tour began, we decided to try it out. 

Sand Cave Trail is a 0.2 mile out-and-back boardwalk trail. It’s completely wheelchair accessible and I loved how smooth it was to roll on with my powered wheelchair. While the trail was relatively short, it was nice to be in nature and I really enjoyed it. 

At the end of Sand Cave Trail, there is an accessible lookout point and from this point, you can actually see an opening to Sand Cave. This cave is popular because back in 1925, a well-known American cave explorer named Floyd Collins got stuck in the cave for 14 days and eventually died. 

If you have time, Sand Cave Trail is definitely worth checking out, but there are a couple other wheelchair accessible trails in Mammoth Cave National Park as well. You could try Echo River Spring Trail, which is 0.6 miles long and its trailhead is located in the Green River Ferry parking lot, or Sloan’s Crossing Pond Trail, which is a 0.4 mile boardwalk trail.

Due to time constraints, I didn’t personally get a chance to enjoy the other accessible trail options, but I have heard great things about them, so hopefully they’ll work for your needs. If you do try out Echo River Spring Trail or Sloan’s Crossing Pond Trail, please let me know your thoughts. 

Next, we drove a bit further to the Mammoth Cave Visitor Center (located at 1 Mammoth Cave Pkwy). Plenty of accessible parking spots were available at the Visitor Center, so we found a good spot, unloaded from the van, and headed inside to get the tickets for our Mammoth Cave tour. 

You should get your tickets for the Accessible Tour in advance of your visit. You can purchase tickets online right here and they’re usually available to purchase a couple months in advance. The accessible tour runs year-round and typically sells out, as it’s always a smaller group of no more than 14 people, so I’d certainly suggest getting your tickets well in advance of visiting. 

To claim your tickets for the accessible tour, you need to arrive at the Visitor Center at least 30 minutes before your tour start time. The Visitor Center has a small museum that’s free to explore, a gift shop, and accessible restrooms, so you’ll have plenty to enjoy here before your tour begins. Of course, I stocked up on Mammoth Cave souvenirs during my free time and bought too much, as usual. 

Once it was time for our tour, we got back into our personal vehicle and our group followed each other to where the tour began. It was only about a five minute drive from the Visitor Center to the beginning spot of the accessible tour, so it was a very easy drive. 

The wheelchair accessible Mammoth Cave tour started at the elevator building, which houses the elevator that can take wheelchair users down into the cave. The elevator can only be operated by a Park Ranger, so that’s why you must sign up for the accessible tour if you want to enter Mammoth Cave as a wheelchair user. 

Our tour group consisted of about twelve people and our Park Ranger/tour guide was Jackie. He was enthusiastic and his passion for teaching us about Mammoth Cave was evident. He also did a fantastic job of keeping our group together throughout the entire tour, which lasted two hours. 

The elevator took us 26 stories underground in just a couple minutes, and once the elevator doors opened, I was ready to explore the world’s longest cave. I had dreamed of visiting Mammoth Cave so long that I couldn’t even believe I was actually there, but I was immensely excited to begin our accessible tour. 

The tour lasted about two hours and over the course of those two hours, we walked/rolled approximately half a mile. There were seats available for members of our group that needed a break, and I was also surprised to see restrooms in the cave, but a wheelchair accessible restroom stall wasn’t available in the cave, unfortunately.

The paved path in Mammoth Cave was really smooth to roll on and relatively flat for the entire way. In other caves that I’ve visited, sections of the accessible paths are usually quite steep and slippery, and can be a bit challenging to traverse, but the paved path in Mammoth Cave was by far the easiest cave path I’ve ever rolled on. I was highly impressed by how wheelchair accessible it was! 

During the tour, we saw the iconic Snowball Room area, wandered through Cleaveland Avenue and saw mineral formations & gypsum, and we learned so much about the cave’s history and early explorers. It was fascinating to hear our guide, Jackie, talk about the first people that discovered Mammoth Cave many years ago while admiring the natural beauty within the cave. 

We also had plenty of time to actually enjoy the cave and take photos. Jackie never rushed our group and even encouraged us to fully enjoy Mammoth Cave, instead of rushing through it, which was nice. After wanting to visit for so long, I really appreciated the fact that we could admire Mammoth Cave to the fullest extent. 

After a couple hours, we got back on the elevator and headed to the top where our van was parked. By this point, we were getting hungry for some lunch, so we drove about five minutes to The Lodge at Mammoth Cave. Inside The Lodge, there are gift shops, a coffee shop, and a couple different eateries. 

We chose to eat at Green River Grill, which features a variety of dishes prepared with local and regional farm-fresh foods. The restaurant is open for breakfast, lunch, and dinner, and whether you’re in the mood for a sandwich, salad, southern fried chicken, or something else, you’re sure to find it at Green River Grill. 

Now that we had experienced some of Mammoth Cave’s wheelchair accessible offerings, it was time to exit the park and drive back toward Louisville. I had high expectations for Mammoth Cave, and I’m happy to say that it definitely lived up to them. As a wheelchair user, I loved that I could easily enjoy so many different aspects of Mammoth Cave National Park and I’d highly encourage you to visit for yourself! 

---

To close out this blog post, I want to share some final tips/reminders with you to make your wheelchair accessible Mammoth Cave experience a smooth one:

• Book your tickets for the accessible tour in advance of your visit. You can do that here. 

• Plan at least a half day (or full day) to enjoy Mammoth Cave National Park. With the cave tour (2 hours) and multiple accessible trails, there is a lot to see, no matter what your abilities are. 

• Accessible restrooms are located in the Visitor Center and in The Lodge at Mammoth Cave. 

• Wear long sleeves or a light jacket for your tour, as it’s approximately 54° year round inside the cave. I wore a thin hoodie and was comfortable throughout the tour, but I was definitely glad I had long sleeves. 

• If you’re looking for a wheelchair accessible rental van in the Louisville area, check out Superior Van & Mobility’s website by clicking here.

Watch my short video about my experience in Mammoth Cave National Park below –

.

*Thank you to Kentucky Tourism for working with me on this trip and showing me the best of wheelchair accessible Mammoth Cave! While my experiences were complimentary, all opinions expressed are authentic and my own.

.