Hiking The River Styx Spring, Sunset Point And Heritage Trails At Mammoth Cave National Park
Hold on to your horses friends, because the next two posts just might get a little confusing.
We hiked almost all the trails during our recent visit to Mammoth Cave National Park and there are more than you might think.
Most aren’t that long, but hike a couple of them together and you can get a pretty decent hike.
There are around a dozen trails that originate from or you can easily get to from the visitor center. They range in distance from 1/2 a mile to 1 1/2 miles respectively.
During our first day we combined 3 of the trails making the hike a total distance of 2.15 miles. Those trails were River Styx Spring, Sunset Point and Heritage.
There was between 300-400 feet of elevation gain and pets are allowed on all surface trails in Mammoth Cave National Park.
We started with the River Styx Spring trail, located behind the visitor, and it’s downhill the whole way. You will pass the historic entrance to Mammoth Cave during the hike so be sure to stop and check it out.
Just a reminder that you may not enter the cave here though without a tour ticket.
The trail will end at an overlook for the spring. The spring is an underground river that exits the cave and goes into the Green River. There is an informational board on the overlook as well.
Once we snapped some pics we turned around and headed for the Sunset Point Trail.
Please note the sign doesn’t say Sunset Point though, you need to follow the sign for Echo River Spring.
After a few minutes you’ll see a sign on your left, partially hidden by trees, saying Sunset Point, Heritage Trail and visitor center.
The Sunset Point Trail consists of a lot of steps and you are climbing practically the whole way. All the elevation gain you encounter during this hike is gonna be during this 0.3 mile trail.
Be prepared to get your heart racing on this section.
The viewpoint at the top though is pretty amazing so all that hard work really pays off.
You then hop right on the heritage trail from the viewpoint. This trail consists of a 0.5 mile wooden boardwalk loop that is handicap accessible.
In the center of the loop is Old Guide’s Cemetery, which was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1991. It’s the burial place of one of Mammoth Cave’s earliest cave guides, Stephen Bishop.
After finishing the loop and checking out the cemetery we hiked back to our vehicle. Because of construction projects we had to cut through some parking lots to reach the visitor center.
Normally you can take a footbridge behind the visitor center to reach the Heritage Trail, but it was closed for construction. You can park in the parking lot by the cabins to reach the trail during construction.
We weren’t that impressed with the spring, but Sunset Point and the cemetery were both completely worth the hike.
If you start from the parking lot (or visitor center if construction is done) it’s a short and easy hike just to do Heritage Trail to view the cemetery and viewpoint.
I highly suggest picking up a trail map from the visitor center before you begin hiking. All these little trails interweave with one another and they can get confusing to navigate at times.
