The Commonwealth of Kentucky has many things to do that are not tied to the Kentucky Derby, horses and a rather large festival. While you are visiting Kentucky, you should check out Mammoth Cave National Park. Mammoth Cave is large limestone cave system about 90 minutes south of Louisville near the appropriately named Cave City.

The park manged by the National Park Service has several tours that you can take through the caves based on your skills and time commitment. If you’re lucky you will also get to see some of the native residents of the park like wild turkeys.

Now if you’re not used to hiking, perhaps you want to do this several days in advance of attending the Kentucky Oaks and Kentucky Derby. We took the moderate “Domes & Dripstones Tour” and well doing all the stairs and steps for two days at the track can best be described as “brutal”.  It was a pretty good workout.