Big Hollow Loop, Mammoth Caves National Park

Date	Distance	Time	Elevation Gain	Average Moving Time	Year to Date Miles
4/6/2024	9.6 miles	4 hours 37 minutes	292'	2.3 mph	229.7 miles

Parking: 

• Mammoth Caves, Maple Springs Trailhead

Map:

• Hiking - Mammoth Cave National Park (U.S. National Park Service) (nps.gov)

Directions:

• Take Maple Springs Connector trail on the same side as the parking lot. Cross Green River Ferry Road. Where trail splits, stay right to take Big Hollow North Loop counterclockwise. Do not take shortcut trail. Continue back along loop back to start. Cross Green River Ferry Road and take Maple Springs Connector trail back to trailhead. Cross street and take road to Good Spring Church and Cemetery. Return back to the trailhead.

Our third day at Mammoth Cave National Park. We started at the same trailhead as yesterday. This time our car routed us via the ferry route to the Maple Springs Trailhead. There is a free 2 car ferry that crosses the river and is the shorter drive to the trailhead than how we drove yesterday. It was short and fun. Today's hike was less impressive than yesterday's hike. The beginning of the hike is horse friendly, and we did see a few horse trailers at the trailhead. The next section was frequented by mountain bikers. The trail was very cruisy, but fewer wildflowers and no views. We passed by a couple of large sinkholes. There is also a Big Hollow South Loop, but I was feeling pretty tired, so we skipped it. After our hike, we continued on to visit a historic church and cemetery in the park. Many of the gravestones were from the 1800's, but a few were much more recent. The simple church was open.

On board the ferry

A large sinkhole

Lunch break

Checking out a hole

Heading to the cemetery

You can also drive this road to the cemetery.

The short 2 car ferry ride across the river.