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Start at 1. Welcome to Mammoth Cave

Start at the trailhead. Each story plays as you reach its place on the trail.

Free audio tour4 stories

Historic Entrance and River Styx Spring, Mammoth Cave National Park, Kentucky

A short walk from the visitor center down the hillside to the cave's famous natural entrance, then along the River Styx Spring Trail to where an underground river leaves the world's longest known cave: the first explorers, the saltpeter miners, the enslaved guides, and how water made the cave.

9 min of audio · 1 miles · Read the transcript

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Tap a stop to hear its story. Reference route. Outline markers are optional stories.

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    Getting started

    1. Start in the right placeThis tour begins at Welcome to Mammoth Cave. Start at the trailhead; the first story plays when you arrive.
    2. Let's hear itUse headphones or the phone speaker at a comfortable volume. Download the tour while you still have signal.
    3. Stories meet you thereYour phone's location starts each story automatically. Music flows straight into the narration. Keep this page open; it keeps the screen awake for GPS.
    4. You're ready to explorePark at the Mammoth Cave Visitor Center (no entrance fee; the walk needs no cave ticket). Download the tour first. Press Start on the paved path just south of the visitor center, where cave tours line up, and walk down the hill to the Historic Entrance, then follow the River Styx Spring Trail. It's about half a mile one way, steep in places, and the walk back is uphill. The cave itself is entered only on a ticketed tour. The Heritage Trail, Old Guides Trail and the visitor center footbridge were closed for rebuilding; check with the visitor center.

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    Facts from the National Park Service (Mammoth Cave National Park pages: trails, FAQs, timeline, Native Americans, African American history, Stephen Bishop, how the cave formed, cave tours, fish, bats, endangered species, the Beneath Your Feet program and the Mammoth Cave Map & Guide). Trail geometry © OpenStreetMap contributors (ODbL). Music: Beethoven, Moonlight Sonata, first movement, Paul Pitman for Musopen via Wikimedia Commons (public domain). Narration is AI-generated. Not an official National Park Service product.