McCoy Hollow Trail in the backcountry of Mammoth Cave National Park

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If you plan to hike in the backcountry of Mammoth Cave National Park, do not rely on the map that comes with the free park brochure. Purchase the weatherproof map by National Geographic that is available in the Visitor Center book store (it is also available from various online retailers). This map has more detail, and it is going to last much longer than the paper map. I hiked most trails in the backcountry using the National Geographic map, and it’s nearly as good as new.

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Length:  6.5 miles (one way)
Time: 3 hours
Difficulty: Moderate to Strenuous
Suitable for Horses: This trail isn’t suitable for man or beast.

The McCoy Hollow Trail in the backcountry of Mammoth Cave National Park is a 6.5-mile hiking and equestrian trail that begins at the Temple Hill Trailhead on Houchin Ferry Road and ends at the intersection with the Wet Prong Trail. It provides direct access to the Three Springs Backcountry Campsite (.9 mile from Temple Hill) and the McCoy Hollow Backcountry Campsite (4.5 miles from Temple Hill).

McCoy Hollow Trail map (click to enlarge)

I hate to spoil the trail report in advance, but if all you read is this paragraph, you know what to expect. The McCoy Hollow Trail is CERTIFIED ROTTEN. It’s not fit for man or beast (horses are allowed on it). When nearly the entire hike is consumed with trying to avoid twisting an ankle on rocks and roots, getting around mudholes full of horse piss and manure, beating overgrown vegetation out of the way (machete suggested), checking for ticks, wiping spider webs off your face, and walking around so many fallen trees that you probably hike an extra mile, there’s just no pleasure in it. On top of that, there’s nothing remotely scenic or interesting about the McCoy Hollow Trail (which can be said about every trail in the Mammoth Cave backcountry). I’ve read numerous reviews for the campsites along this trail, and many campers report terrible trail conditions and often the inability to even find the campsites. One guy claimed he had to go around “100 downed trees,” and while that’s somewhat of an exaggeration, it sums up the condition of this trail.

Fallen trees and general mayhem are common on the McCoy Hollow Trail in the backcountry of Mammoth Cave

I started the hike at the Temple Hill Trailhead. Unfortunately, the Houchin Ferry no longer carries vehicles across the Green River, so I had to drive a half hour from the Mammoth Cave Campground where I was staying just to get to the northern end of Houchin Ferry Road, a road that is as CERTIFIED ROTTEN as the McCoy Hollow Trail. There are so many potholes on the road that vehicle speed is limited to only a few miles per hour, so it takes forever to get to the end. (If you are using Google Maps for directions, search TEMPLE HILL TRAILHEAD MAMMOTH CAVE.)

The trailhead for the McCoy Hollow Trail is a little hard to find. It is at the end of the Temple Hill parking lot with the information board. There is no sign identifying it, but you can see blue blazes on the trees near the start of the only obvious trail. Blazes are paint splotches or colored markers on trees that serve as Hansel and Gretel breadcrumbs. In addition, mileage markers are attached to the trees so that you can keep track of your progress. They are supposed to be every quarter mile, though many are missing. The mileage markers on the McCoy Hollow Trail have MH on them.

Blue blazes and mileage markers along the McCoy Hollow Trail in Mammoth Cave National Park

The first half mile of the McCoy Hollow Trail is downhill. Overall, the grade is a moderate 11%, but there are some short sections with grades as steep as 20% (15% is where strenuous hiking begins). After a quarter mile, much of the path is a worn, narrow gully, most likely caused by years of horse travel, and sections of it are full of rocks. In some places the gullies are waist deep. This is definitely rough terrain.

The start of the McCoy Hollow Trail is often a deep gully, Mammoth Cave National Park

The gullies largely disappear after a tenth of a mile, but other than that, the trail isn’t much better. When I did the hike, there was a tree down (#1 of the supposed 100 reported in the camping review), and since the trail now runs along a ledge with a creek down below, there wasn’t much room to maneuver around it without falling off the edge, even on foot. There’s no way a horse could get around it. Certainly this tree may be cleared by the time you do the hike, but that’s no guarantee. There are lots of downed trees in the backcountry that previous hikers have worn trails around, which shows they’ve been there for a long time.

After a half mile, I could see the bottom of the hill, but the final stretch of trail down to it is very steep. If the trail surface was smooth, I could have just slid down. The hill has a 22% average grade, which if you are coming the other way—uphill—is tippy-toe steep. That’s when you have to push off on the balls of your feet to move forward and your heels never touch the ground.

Bottom of the first hill on the McCoy Hollow Trail comes a half mile from the start, Mammoth Cave National Park

Once at the bottom, the McCoy Hollow Trail comes to a T-intersection that is not on the map, and there is no indication as to which way to turn. To the left is what appears to be a campsite, but this is not the Three Springs Campsite, which is another .4 mile ahead. A right leads to a creek bed (dry when I did the hike in mid-October). I just happened to spot a blue blaze when looking in the direction of the campsite, so I knew that was the way to go (left). As for the makeshift campsite, there are many reviews for this area by campers who could not find their campsite and ended up just pitching a tent on the nearest level ground. This might be such a place.

Makeshift campsite at the half-mile point on the McCoy Hollow Trail in the backcountry of Mammoth Cave National Park

The next three miles of the McCoy Hollow Trail are like a kiddie rollercoaster. According to my GPS, there are over 50 hills, and only one of them is longer than 150 feet from top to bottom. Some are the equivalent of climbing staircases, but most are barely noticeable. Other than a few exceptions, grades rarely exceed 15%.

The trail continues along a ridge, with one side straight up a hill and the other side straight down one. It is still full of rocks, and the edge of the trail on the downhill slope is quite soft, so it could crumble away, particularly under the weight of a horse.

The McCoy Hollow Trail follows along ridges above steep ravines for most of its first three miles, Mammoth Cave National Park

The trail to the Three Springs Campsite comes .9 mile from the Temple Hill Trailhead. You will see the campsite at the bottom of what might as well be a cliff long before coming to the actual trail that leads to it, so don’t panic and think you have to bushwhack your way down. Just continue on the McCoy Hollow Trail until you see a sign for the campsite.

I tried to photograph all the backcountry campsites in Mammoth Cave National Park, but in this case there was somebody camping, plus I wasn’t about to go down that hill even if there was a naked girl calling my name. This is typical, for many of the campsites in the backcountry are either at the bottom or the top of extremely steep hills. (If you are heading to the campsite, be aware that the blazes along campsite trails are orange.)

Intersection of the McCoy Hollow Trail and the trail to the Three Springs Backcountry Campsite in Mammoth Cave National Park

If you look at the map, the campsite trail is located on a finger-like protrusion that runs northward. There are three such fingers, and the reasons for them is that they are going around a deep ravine created by creeks (the Three Springs Campsite is at the bottom of one of these ravines). Instead of building a bridge across the ravine, the trail turns north until reaching a point where the ravine and the creek are shallow enough to cross on foot. After crossing over, the trail immediately turns south, this time running along the ridge on the opposite side. As a result, by the time you get around the last ravine you have traveled more than double the distance than if the trail ran in a straight line. And by the way, all three of the ravines lie within the 3-mile stretch of the kiddie rollercoaster hills.

Creek at the bottom of the second ravine the McCoy Hollow Trail parallels, Mammoth Cave National Park

From the turn around the first ravine until the end of the third ravine, the McCoy Hollow Trail is a pretty easy hike cardiovascular-wise. The main problem now is that much of the trail is overgrown. I usually suggest checking your legs for ticks every time you brush up against vegetation, but in this case you’d end up spending most of the hike staring down at your legs. There are also a lot of briers, so be sure to wear long pants. Pre-treat them with Permethrin if possible.

Typical overgrown terrain on the McCoy Hollow Trail in the backcountry of Mammoth Cave National Park

Another obstacle on the McCoy Hollow Trail, particularly at the creek crossings, are mudholes created by horse hooves churning up the dirt in perpetual wet areas. Some have paths around them, some don’t. In some cases the path around the main mudhole goes through a lesser mudhole. I must admit, however, that mudholes plague all trails in the backcountry, not just the McCoy Hollow Trail.

Mudhole on the McCoy Hollow Trail in Mammoth Cave National Park

The one exception to the short hills on the three-mile kiddie rollercoaster section comes a little over two miles into the hike at the return end of the second ravine. At this point the McCoy Hollow Trail descends a tenth of a mile on a hill with a 12% grade and then up a hundred yards on a hill equally as steep. Railroad ties across the trail are in place to help control erosion. These force rainwater to flow off the trail instead of down it, preventing the water from washing away top soil and creating gullies (the photo below is looking up the hill). After that, it’s back to the easy kiddie rollercoaster hills for another 1.5 miles until the end of the third ravine.

Steep hill on the McCoy Hollow Trail 2.1 miles from the Temple Hill Trailhead

The end of the third ravine comes 3.75 miles into the hike. At this point the McCoy Hollow Trail begins a climb up a series of three hills with short, level areas between them. The overall climb lasts .35 mile and has a grade of just 10% (moderate), but the first hill (less than 200 feet to the top) has a grade of 25%—tippy toe steep. Due to erosion, there are plenty of rocks on the trail, which is typical of steep hills.

Steep and rocky terrain on the McCoy Hollow Trail starting at 3.75 miles from the Temple Hill Trailhead in Mammoth Cave National Park

The top of the hill is marked by a rock ledge, and just beyond this (4.25-mile marker) is a grassy area where I picked up five ticks in the span of 100 feet. This must be some sort of tick city, because these are the only ticks I got in the backcountry of Mammoth Cave, and I hiked just about every trail.

Grassy area with plenty of ticks at the 4.25 mile marker on the McCoy Hollow Trail in the backcountry of Mammoth Cave National Park

At this point you are going to get lost—it’s almost guaranteed (unless you continue reading this report). The McCoy Hollow Trail runs along the top of the rock ledge. If you find yourself walking parallel to it and getting farther and farther away, you are already lost. The problem is that the trail makes a sharp left towards the ledge, and there isn’t really much of a trail. At the exact spot where the official trail turns, the unmapped trail, which is actually a much more obvious trail, continues straight ahead. Without some type of sign or double blaze on a tree (which indicates a sharp turn), most people are just going to keep walking straight ahead on the wrong trail.

Unmarked and unmapped trail near the McCoy Hollow Campsite runs parallel to a rock ledge while the real McCoy Hollow Trail runs on top of it, Mammoth Cave National Park

Recreation.gov, the campground and tour reservation website for all National Parks, claims that the trail to the McCoy Hollow Campsite comes at 4.2 miles into the hike, which is just about where the unmapped trail appears. This trail does head in the direction of the campsite, and perhaps a long time ago it did lead to it, but today it eventually peters out and leaves unsuspecting hikers in the middle of the forest. This is probably why so many people report that they got lost and could not find the McCoy Hollow Campsite.

I had a GPS, so I knew the campsite’s general location. Because I needed to photograph it for National Park Planner, I just bushwhacked my way towards it and eventually did find it. After taking my photos, I hiked back to the McCoy Hollow Trail on the official trail that leads to the campsite and then worked my way back to the point where I got lost so I could figure out what went wrong.

To stay on the right path, be on the lookout for a cairn about 225 feet past the 4.25 mileage marker (the marker on the tree). A cairn is a purposely stacked pile of rocks created by hikers to warn other hikers of something of importance. In this case, the cairn is worthless because it is the only cairn in the entire backcountry of Mammoth Cave, so nobody is looking for it, nor would anyone understand what it means. Hikers at Mammoth Cave are looking for blazes, not cairns.

Now that you know what to look for, when you see the cairn, take a sharp left. As mentioned, there isn’t much of a trail, but just walk towards the ledge and you will soon see blue blazes on the trees. In the series of three photos below, the first is the cairn, the second is the unmarked trail that you’ll end up on if you don’t know any better, and the third is where you need to go.

Cairn marks a sharp turn near the 4.25-mile mark on the McCoy Hollow Trail, Mammoth Cave National Park

Unmapped and unmarked trail near the 4.25-mile mark on the McCoy Hollow Trail in Mammoth Cave National Park

Just past the 4.25 mileage marker, the McCoy Hollow Trail turns towards a rock ledge, Mammoth Cave National Park

It comes as no surprise that the hike up to the top of the ledge is extremely steep. The climb is only 175 feet, but the average grade is 23%.

McCoy Hollow Trail heads steeply up a rock ledge just beyond the 4.25 mileage marker, Mammoth Cave National Park

McCoy Hollow Trail runs along a rock ledge at the 4.25-mile point on the hike from the Temple Hill Trailhead, Mammoth Cave National Park

The funny thing is that if you are coming the other way, there is a double blaze, though the side-by-side configuration is incorrect for marking a sharp turn. This is what should have been on a tree where the cairn was (except in the correct configuration of the left blaze being higher up than the right blaze).

Double blaze marks a sharp turn on the McCoy Hollow Trail in Mammoth Cave National Park

The official trail to the McCoy Hollow Campsite is a quarter mile farther ahead, approximately 4.5 miles into the hike. There is a MCCOY HOLLOW CAMPSITE sign at the turn (it was broken and leaned against a tree when I did the hike). If you plan to camp here, see the McCoy Hollow Backcountry Campsite web page here on National Park Planner for more information.

Sign at the intersection of the McCoy Hollow Trail and the McCoy Hollow Campsite trail in the backcountry of Mammoth Cave National Park

The next 1.6 mile of the McCoy Hollow Trail goes around three more ravines, only these head in an east-west direction. The trails around the ravines are either up- or downhill, while the trail segments from one ravine to the next are pretty flat. The first mile is a little overgrown, but there aren’t many rocks on the trail, so that’s an improvement.

Downed trees are everywhere on this stretch of the trail. It looks like a tornado came through here, and maybe one did. Some of the trees are so long that by the time I walked around them I had trouble finding my way back to the trail. There were also so many spider webs across the trail that I feel lucky not to have been cocooned.

Trees are down everywhere along the McCoy Hollow Trail in the backcountry of Mammoth Cave National Park

Marbled orb weaver spins a web across the McCoy Hollow Trail in Mammoth Cave National Park

After tackling the first two east-west ravines and starting on the third, which runs more in the north-south direction, things take a turn for the worse (starting at the 5.5 mile marker and continuing for a half mile). This may well be the most miserable section of a truly miserable trail. I don’t mind a challenge, but when the trail is so overgrown that all I can do is worry about ticks (especially since I just picked up five of them), it’s just no fun. There are also a couple of extremely sharp turns located on steep embankments between a boulder and a tree—just imagine a string hanging over the top of a pinhead. I could barely fit though some of them, so how a horse can do it is beyond me.

Tight squeeze between a rock and tree near the 5.5 mile mark on the McCoy Hollow Trail, Mammoth Cave National Park

Extremely steep climb up an embankment to get around a downed tree near the 5.5 mile mark on the McCoy Hollow Trail in Mammoth Cave National Park

Right at the 5.75 mileage marker (still northbound around the third ravine) is an unmapped T-intersection with no indication of which way to go. Based on foot and hoof prints, people and horses have gone both ways, and only one is correct. There are no blue blazes in sight despite there being trees fifteen feet down either trail where a blaze could be attached. I went left—the correct way—just because it looked more worn out. This is up another very steep hill with soil that has been pulverized by horse hooves. It’s only a 25-foot climb, but the grade is 56%. It may be the steepest hill in the backcountry of Mammoth Cave National Park.

Steepest hill on the McCoy Hollow Trail, and possibly in the backcountry of Mammoth Cave National Park

While most of the inclines and declines up to this point are mild to moderate in difficulty and don’t last more than a hundred yards, when you get to the tip of the third ravine and start heading back south, you are faced with a very steep downhill .3-mile section of trail with grades in the low 20% range. This section actually heads down into the ravine (a drop in elevation of nearly 160 feet), and due to years of erosion and horse hooves removing the top soil, the trail is so full of loose rocks it’s like walking through a bombed out building. At least it’s not overgrown. The photo below was taken looking up a section of the trail near the top of the hill. If it were smooth, I could just slide down it.

Extremely steep hill near the 5.9-mile mark on the McCoy Hollow Trail in Mammoth Cave National Park

At the bottom of the hill is the Wet Prong, a small creek that was actually dry when I did the hike in October. I had been hiking at a snail’s pace for nearly the entire time, and the terrain at the creek certainly looked more conducive to pleasurable hiking.

McCoy Hollow Trail comes to the Dry Prong six miles from the Temple Hill Trailhead, Mammoth Cave National Park

I got my hopes up too soon, for once across the creek the McCoy Hollow Trail turns into overgrown crap once again. A hundred yards later it begins to climb out of the ravine on another rubble-rock filled hill, the last major hill before the trail ends at the intersection with the Wet Prong Trail. The grade averages 15%, but the climb is only a tenth of a mile long and rises about 70 feet in elevation. There is a fork on the way up, and there are no blazes indicating which path to take. However, the two merge just up ahead, so it makes no difference. One of these may be some sort of social trail cut to get around something, perhaps a downed tree, that has since been removed.

Last steep hill on the McCoy Hollow Trail prior to its end at the Wet Prong Trail, Mammoth Cave National Park

Just when you think things can’t get worse, at the top of the hill, just .3 mile from the end, there are more mudholes. One had what appeared to be wide bicycle or motorcycle tire track through it, and it wouldn’t surprise me at all if some idiot did ride a motorcycle back here (though I doubt he got far). This section of the trail was an old road at one time.

One of many mudholes on the McCoy Hollow Trail just prior to the intersection with the Wet Prong Trail, Mammoth Cave National Park

Other than the mudholes, the last quarter mile is a decent hike. Being an old road, the trail is wide enough that it can’t get completely overgrown. If everything would have been like this, the McCoy Hollow Trail would have been a great hike. I don’t mind hills and rocks and tough terrain, or even mudholes full of horse piss and manure, but when you need a machete to bushwhack at least 70 percent of the time, that makes a trail CERTIFIED ROTTEN.

Typical terrain on the last quarter mile of the McCoy Hollow Trail before the intersection with the Wet Prong Trail, Mammoth Cave National Park

Arriving at the Wet Prong Trail was like getting out of prison. The trail, which is much more pleasurable to hike, goes two ways, with a right heading towards the Collie Ridge Trail and a left towards my destination, the First Creek Trailhead where I had a ride waiting. Signs point out each destination. See the Wet Prong Trail report here on National Park Planner for information and photos about the hike.

Intersection of the McCoy Hollow and Wet Prong trails in the backcountry of Mammoth Cave National Park

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