Mammoth Cave National Park, KY
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Midwest surprisingly offers us many national parks to visit all year round. One of the national parks near Illinois is the Mammoth Cave National Park in Cave City, Kentucky. We rented a car from Champaign and drove around 5 hours, excluding small stops in Indiana. We had never been to Kentucky before, and we believe that not many international students had been there. Plus, this was the first time we visited a cave in the US, and we start with the world’s longest known cave system!
On the morning of July 20, 2024, we rented a car from Enterprise and began our journey. The first task of the day was to move our belongings to a friend’s apartment, as there was an interim period when we wouldn’t have a place to stay. After taking care of these chores, we officially started our trip with a visit to IKEA in Indiana. We enjoyed a leisurely stroll through the store and treated ourselves to a cheap yet delicious meal at the café.
From there, it took us about two more hours to reach Louisville, Kentucky. Once in town, we headed to the Great Lawn to admire the beautiful bridges connecting Indiana and Kentucky.
For dinner, we walked to a charming spot called Troll Pub Under the Bridge. The highlights of our meal included an incredible beer cheese served with pretzels, honey-sriracha wings, and flavorful ciders.
We ended our day at the Econo Lodge in town. Louisville struck us as a clean and modern city, and we’d love to visit again.
On the second day of our trip, we visited Mammoth Cave, located in Cave City. As always, we snapped some pictures with the national park sign before venturing into the cave.
For anyone planning a trip there, it’s important to note that you’ll need to reserve a tour and time slot in advance. The park offers a variety of tours to choose from, but we opted for the classic option: the Historic Tour.
The cave was surprisingly cold, even in the summer, so it’s a good idea to dress warmly. We entered with our group, led by an enthusiastic guide—an older man with a youthful spirit. He was a master storyteller and seemed to know every inch of the cave.
At one point, he wanted us to experience the total darkness of the cave. He extinguished his torch, and we were instantly plunged into complete darkness. It was an incredible and unforgettable moment.
Unfortunately, our trip ended abruptly as something came up after the cave tour, but we would love to return to the area and explore more someday.
At the end of Summer 2025, we embarked on a grand tour of the northern United States. Our goal was to explore a mix of popular national parks and hidden gems across Montana, Wyoming, Oregon, and Washington. The journey took us through breathtaking mountain ranges and bountiful wilderness teeming with wildlife. Thanks to booking our flights more than six months in advance, we were lucky enough to fly directly out of Champaign, a perfect start to our adventure!
This past July, we embarked on a whirlwind three-day trip to visit some of California’s national parks that were still on our list, namely, Channel Islands, Pinnacles, and Kings Canyon. While they may be less famous than their neighbors, we found them to be refreshing, full of fun, and wonderfully family-friendly. The trip was a showcase of California’s diverse wildlife, giving us our first-ever sightings of whales, island foxes, scrub jays, and California quails, and that’s not even counting the school of dolphins that raced our ferry to and from the Channel Islands!
This trip was a triumphant redemption for our failed attempt last year, exactly one year prior, when Frontier Airlines unexpectedly canceled our flight just eight hours before departure, derailing our Fourth of July plans. This year’s adventure, thankfully, proved to be the best redemption ever! We successfully visited all the national parks in Colorado and even managed to include Wind Cave National Park in South Dakota, which we’d missed last summer.
We had the chance to return to England for Poy’s graduation at Oxford University—a trip filled with celebration, friends, and family. It was such a joy to revisit familiar places and explore new ones, like Canterbury and Hampton Court Palace, which took us a bit outside the city. Accompanied by Poy’s family and my college bestie, Emma, the trip was packed with laughter, meaningful moments, and plenty of walking—over 15,000 steps a day!