Guide to Bowling Green, Kentucky: Dingoes & Caves & Cars, Oh My!

When we chose to travel here, we figured it would be just a National Park trip. As we started researching the area more, we quickly added more things to our must-see list. We ended up only going to Mammoth Cave one day of the trip because there were just so many things catching my eye. We weren’t expecting to be as impressed with the area as we were. This trip was a long weekend in mid-September and I wish we could have at least had one more day. In our short time there, we experienced Mammoth Cave, Kentucky Down Under, the Corvette Museum, Lincoln’s Birthplace, and a lot of really good food.

Mammoth Cave was the original reason we chose to go to the area. The closest town to Mammoth Cave would be Cave City. One of our biggest values when traveling is good food. We will stay a little farther away from our main destination to have closer access to local food options and more comfortable stays. We ended up staying in Bowling Green. Cave City does have some local options. We did stop at Cave City Pizza and were super impressed with it. Bowling Green is just a bigger city with more food options and easier resource access(gas, alcohol, general stores, etc.). We always love staying at the Drury Inn and the Bowling Green location did not disappoint. We do get discounts, but I would honestly choose them even if we didn’t. They actively work to limit environmental impacts and they revive empty historic buildings. They also offer kickbacks and allow pets. We have no affiliation with them currently; we are just happy customers. Anyway, I’ll stop my fangirling over the Drury. In Bowling Green, we had great restaurant options. I still have dreams about the mac & cheese from Tony’s. Pub by Novo had the nicest and most accommodating staff to go with their great food. Bowling Green was an amazing fit for our values on this trip, but we definitely had to drive a bit for some of our activities.

The main activity we were in the area for was Mammoth Cave. Before this trip, I did not do as much research as I should have. All the other parks I’ve been to were hiking-centered. I didn’t completely understand what Mammoth Cave was before we left. Thankfully, I did a little research on the way there and our first night in the hotel. To get the most out of this park, you must buy tickets to at least 1 cave tour; if not more. While there are some nice hikes, they are not the lure of this park. This was one thing that I did not research enough. We did the Domes and Dripstones Tour and absolutely loved it. I wish we had done more Cave Tours. I especially wish we had done one at the main entrance. Domes and Dripstones Tour goes in at a separate entrance. It takes you through several locations including the Frozen Niagara. This tour was filled with some of the most amazing sites. Unfortunately, it can be difficult to get great pictures in some areas with the lighting, or lack thereof. The guides go through the wild and tragic history of the area. They also detail how Mammoth Cave became a National Park. We only spent one day at the park so after our Cave Tour we did one hike. We did the ????? trail. While it wasn’t my favorite hike, some areas felt like we were walking through The Shire and we chose to cut the hike a little short which took us right beside the main entrance to Mammoth Cave. When we started getting closer you could feel the air getting colder and colder. Once we were in front of the opening, you could just feel the cold air spilling from the cave. The temperature of the cave stays consistently around 54°. The day we went, the high was 88° so we noticed the cool air immediately. This may feel different under different outside temperatures/conditions. Overall, we really enjoyed our day at this park. It’s probably not a park we’d spend a long time at but I wish we could have dedicated more than 1 day. With so many other eye-catching activities in the area, that was difficult to do.

Everyone who knows me knows that I am obsessed with Australia. I wanted to go ever since I was a young child. When I was in college, I did a study abroad there. I even have a tattoo with the outline of Australia on my foot. As soon as I saw the Kentucky Down Under Adventure Zoo, I knew I wanted to go. They are a zoo that specializes in Australian animals. They have an enclosed area, where you can feed the kangaroos and emus, by hand. They had several animals that I hadn’t seen at any other zoo. I hadn’t gotten to be that close to kangaroos since Australia. I loved that part. We couldn’t help but feel disappointed while we were at this zoo. I personally have mixed feelings about zoos. I try to make sure I go to zoos that prioritize conservation. Kentucky Down Under Zoo has participated in conservation efforts in the past, I do not want to belittle that. It did take me a decent amount of research to find those efforts. I also could not find anything mentioning conservation on their site. They are also not an AZA-accredited zoo. While we were there, the cages seemed smaller than most zoos I’ve been to. There were limited barriers between the animals and the visitors. As much as I loved seeing the animals, this is not a place we would revisit with their current status. It was a lesson in doing more research on activities to make sure they truly align with our values.

After spending an afternoon in the heat at the zoo, we were ready for a cooler indoor activity. We headed back to Bowling Green, to The Corvette Museum. People who grew up in rural communities know that each family is divided into 1 of 3 houses: Dodge, Chevrolet, or Ford. My family was a Chevy family. If you go to my grandparents’ house, you can still see the line of bowties. I always had a love for Corvettes. As an engineer, I also really enjoy seeing the evolution of designs and technology. The Corvette Museum obviously has many cars on display from their over 70-year history. They also have a display, specifically, on the design and feature choices which had me in awe. Tragically, The Corvette Museum floor collapsed into a sinkhole in 2014 taking several rare Corvettes with it. Thankfully, no people were there during the collapse. They were able to get all of the cars out of the sinkhole. Some of those Corvettes are back on display along with, an exhibit on how they repaired the hole. This display is both eerie and amazing. Then you get to go back into the area where the sinkhole formed but has since been rebuilt. The way it looks now, you would never believe there was a sinkhole there. I honestly loved the Corvette Museum and would love to go back.

After a few days in Bowling Green, we had one stop we wanted to make on our way home. About 1.5 hours northeast of Bowling Green is Abraham Lincoln’s birthplace. For us, it was on the way home. His birthplace is a National Historical Park. There is a visitors’ center with a tiny museum at the park. It has some pieces from the era Abraham Lincoln was born. They also have a piece of a tree that was the last living thing to share this area with Honest Abe. After leaving the visitor center, there is a large set of stairs that leads to a building. The building has many pillars which reminded me of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C.. Once walking up the staircase, you enter the building to see a small one-room log cabin. While not the actual cabin where Lincoln lived, it is a recreation of the original. The actual cabin had been deconstructed long ago. The log cabin is meant to represent the cabin he lived in with his parents and sister. They tried to stay as authentic as possible. After seeing the cabin you can make your way to the previous location of the earlier mentioned tree. Then you can go to the Sinking Spring. The Sinking Spring is a spring on the site and the Lincolns’ got their daily water from it. It is an interesting spring. It comes out into a hole. With the amount of water running through it, it has changed over time. It did not take long to visit all the areas at this stop. We did not go to the other site in the area. We definitely enjoyed seeing the history and it is such a serene place. It is easy to believe it was where the 16th President would have spent the first years of his life.

We didn’t have a lot of time to experience the area. There was a lot more we wish we could have done. Thankfully, as we are residents of Ohio, we will have to drive through this area for many other trips. Hopefully, we can make a quick stop off our drives to see some of the things we didn’t get to on this trip. Let us know in the comments if you want to see any extra info about our trip: food reviews, breakdowns of specific spots, etc.