Mammoth Cave National Park

South Side Trails

The Sand Cave Trail, just off Kentucky 255 near the park's entrance, is a short walk to the Sand Cave entrance where unsuccessful efforts to rescue trapped caver Floyd Collins in 1925 captured worldwide attention. Off of the South Entrance Road (Kentucky 70), Sloane's Crossing Nature Trail circles Sloan's Crossing Pond atop a sandstone ridge. The Turnhole Bend Nature Trail takes you to the Turnhole Bend Blue Hole, the park's largest spring at over fifty feet deep. Cedar Sink Trail rambles among various sink holes, giving you a close look at the early stages of the same geological processes that ultimately resulted in the Mammoth Cave we know today.

North Side Trails

Traveling north from the Visitor Center on Green River Ferry Road and turning left on Maple Spring Road, you will quickly wind your way to Good Spring Church and the Maple Spring Trailhead, jumping-off point for the majority of trails on the North Side. Here you'll find the Sal Hollow Trail, a nine-mile jaunt past a wild cave, sinkholes, and springs. A mile down Sal Hollow, you'll come upon a spur, the Ganter Cave Trail, that leads to the park's longest wild cave on the north side of the Green River. You'll need Park Service permission if you want to enter and explore this cave.

Further up Green River Ferry Road, on the north edge of the park, you'll come to the Lincoln Trailhead. From here you can access the Collie Ridge Trail, which cuts through the heart of the park's backcountry. The trail is nearly level over the entire course of its four-mile length and features a large sandstone camping shelter at trail's end.

In the remote western region of the park, Houchins Ferry Road rambles through the forest to the Houchins Ferry Trailhead. First Creek Trail starts here and is the only trail in the park to the Nolin River. Three campsites along the river are an ideal base camp for fishing the Nolin and its tributaries. The McCoy Hollow Trail heads in the opposite direction, following the winding Green River before turning north into the forest.

Trails on the north side vary in difficulty from being almost uniformly flat to having many steep grades.