Cleaveland Avenue Tour at Mammoth Cave National Park

---

For reviews of all Mammoth Cave National Park tours, how to get tickets, what to wear, and rules for the tours, see the Cave Tours web page here on National Park Planner. Keep in mind that not all tours are offered year-round, and the schedule of what tours are available changes often. Be sure to check the National Park Service’s official Cave Tours web page for the current schedule.

---

OVERVIEW

Unlike many tours of Mammoth Cave that use the Historic Entrance as a starting point, the Cleaveland Avenue Tour requires taking a bus ride and entering the cave at the Carmichael Entrance, a manmade entrance created in 1931 so that tourists didn’t have to walk for hours just to get to the southeastern part of the cave. Cleaveland Avenue itself is a mile-long passageway, and at the end is an elevator, believe it or not. If it is working, the tour concludes by riding it up and out of the cave. If not, tour participants must walk back to the Carmichael Entrance, making the tour a two-mile round trip. There are 231 stairs to take down into the cave at the entrance (and possibly back out). The elevator was not working when I did the tour, and from what I gather, it’s often not working. Other than the stairs, the walk through the cave is quite easy.

Carmichael Entrance to Mammoth Cave

The Cleaveland Avenue Tour is a two-hour tour (two and a half hours if the elevator is not working). It is open to all ages, though those under 16 must be accompanied by someone 18 or older. Infants cannot be carried in a back harness but can be carried in a harness attached to the chest.

While the Cleaveland Avenue Tour covers a less-visited part of Mammoth Cave, it still overlaps with a couple other tours. The Grand Avenue Tour, an all encompassing tour that explores the entire southeastern part of Mammoth Cave that is open to tourists, covers the entire Cleaveland Avenue. However, the Grand Avenue Tour is four hours long, four miles long, and is extremely difficult, so it is not for everyone, particularly small children and those who are out of shape. In truth, I wasn’t that impressed with the Grand Avenue Tour because three miles of it is through passageways that look just like Cleaveland Avenue (of course, one mile of it is Cleaveland Avenue). There is a mile of slot canyon that is cool, but it is debatable if that makes it worth the overall effort. I’m not saying to skip it and just do the Cleaveland Avenue Tour, unless you physically can’t do a four hour / four mile tour. I suggest reading the Grand Avenue Tour report here on National Park Planner and then making a decision.

The Accessible Tour also covers part of Cleaveland Avenue, but it is geared for those with mobility problems and is only given when the elevator is working, as that’s how participants get in and out of the cave. Unless you have mobility issues yourself or are accompanying a family member or friend who must take the Accessible Tour, you would not be substituting it for the Cleaveland Avenue Tour.

Another thing to consider is that Cleaveland Avenue is very similar to the main passageway of Mammoth Cave, so if you took any tour that began at the Historic Entrance, expect to see a similar type of terrain. Because of this, I only recommend the Cleaveland Avenue Tour if time allows. If you have already done a couple tours in the Main Cave, particularly ones that cover geology, unless you are just dead set on seeing as much of Mammoth Cave as possible, there aren’t many reasons to do this tour as well.

Cleaveland Avenue section of Mammoth Cave

Cleaveland Avenue gets its name from Parker Cleaveland (1780-1858), an academic and early geologist who wrote some of the first American books on mineralogy and geology. Some of the mineral samples in his collection were from Mammoth Cave, though he never came to the cave himself. He is referred to as the Father of American Minerology.

INSIDE THE CAVE

As mentioned, the Cleaveland Avenue Tour starts off at the Carmichael Entrance by descending into the cave via 231 stairs, eventually ending up 270 feet below the surface. Even so, Cleaveland Avenue is still 150 feet above the Green River. How can that be? Mammoth Cave is inside a mountain, so despite being hundreds of feet below the surface, you are still higher in elevation than anyone paddling down the river.

Stairs leading down from the Carmichael Entrance of Mammoth Cave to Cleaveland Avenue

Cleaveland Avenue is very similar to the main passageway of Mammoth Cave—cavernous and without any speleothems, which is the collective term for stalactites, stalagmites, and other calcite formations most people associate with a cave. These formations require slow, dripping water to form, and a sandstone caprock covers most of Mammoth Cave, preventing water from entering. Where you do see speleothems, there either is no sandstone caprock or there is a crack where water is getting through.

Cleaveland Avenue section of Mammoth Cave

Participants on the Cleaveland Avenue Tour at Mammoth Cave National Park

What Cleaveland Avenue does have is gypsum, a white, crystal-like mineral that grows on the ceilings and walls of some dry caves when water evaporates from the rocks. Gypsum is also found in the main passage of Mammoth Cave, only there much of it was stripped off the walls by early people who came into the cave around 4,000 years ago. What they did with it, nobody knows. Most of the gypsum that remains today in the main passage is now black from the soot of torches and lanterns used to light the way from prehistoric times up through when cave tours were given before electric lighting was installed beginning in 1917.

The prehistoric people never got to Cleaveland Avenue, and while tours of this section began in the 1840s, visitation was low compared to the passageways near the Historic Entrance. This is why much of the cave walls and ceilings of Cleaveland Avenue are still covered with sparkling, white gypsum.

Ranger discusses gypsum on the Cleaveland Avenue Tour at Mammoth Cave National Park

Gypsum on the ceiling of Mammoth Cave’s Cleaveland Avenue

Depending on the crack or openings in the rocks, the gypsum crystals form different shapes, some flower-like, some as large a celery stalks or deer antlers. In areas where the ceiling is low, you can get a good view of what is referred to a bouquets. Some of the curving and twisting elongated crystals look like mushroom fungus.

Gypsum crystals on the ceiling of Mammoth Cave’s Cleaveland Avenue

Most of the tours that enter Mammoth Cave through the Historic Entrance pass areas with lots of graffiti on the walls and ceilings. There isn’t much of it in Cleaveland Avenue due to, as mentioned, the lower visitation back in the 1800s, but there is some. One signature was made by Wad Wallace. He also wrote 16th Kentucky Infantry (a Union regiment). This signature was made in 1863 during the Civil War. Tours were still given at Mammoth Cave during the war, and obviously some soldiers had time to take them. The signatures were made by using tallow (animal-fat) candles that created a lot of black, greasy smoke. The candles were attached to long poles, and the people writing their names did so by creating a series of black dots.

Graffiti from the Civil War on the walls of Mammoth Cave’s Cleaveland Avenue

The Cleaveland Avenue Tour ends just beyond what is known as the Snowball Room, which gets its name from the gypsum on the ceiling that looks like somebody threw snowballs that stuck.

Gypsum formations on the ceiling of the Snowball Room in Mammoth Cave

Prior to 2012, there was a restaurant in the Snowball Room, and some of the old equipment and picnic tables are still in place. There are even working restrooms. I remember touring the Snowball Room in 2000 and being surprised when I was able to purchase batteries for my camera in a gift shop. That’s not something you expect to be able to do 270 feet below the surface of the Earth.

Equipment from the defunct restaurant in the Snowball Room at Mammoth Cave

Picnic tables at the defunct restaurant in the Snowball Room at Mammoth Cave

If the elevator is operating, the tour group exits here. Otherwise, everyone has to make the one-mile walk back to the Carmichael Entrance.

Participants on the Cleaveland Avenue Tour at Mammoth Cave exit via the staircase at the Carmichael Entrance

Back to the Top