Bluegrass to Pennyroyal (page 3 of 5)

Points 7-9

7. Hodgenville
Rte. 31E meanders through deep woods and past the boyhood home of Abraham Lincoln: a reconstructed log cabin beside rippling Knob Creek marks the site. A few miles farther the drive enters the town of Hodgenville, a virtual theme park celebrating Lincoln. A bronze statue overlooks the town square; the Lincoln Museum is brimming with exhibits and memorabilia; and on Saturdays a "Lincoln Jamboree" is held. South of town, at the Abraham Lincoln Birthplace National Historic Site, you can visit the temple-like monument of granite and pink marble that enshrines the crumbling log cabin in which the great president is said to have been born in 1809.

8. Crystal Onyx Cave
Rambling south on Rte. 31E, the drive enters the region called the Pennyroyal -- named for an herb but renowned as the locale of some of the world's most amazing caves. Beyond tourist-oriented Cave City, which is full of flashing neon signs, two stops in particular are worth your while: Crystal Onyx Cave, a labyrinth of rare onyx columns; and Horse Cave (also known as Hidden River Cave) in the city of Horse Cave. John Muir noted that in hot weather "the cold air that issues from its fern-clad lips" could cool everyone in town.

9. Mammoth Cave National Park
Follow signs to the East Entrance of Mammoth Cave National Park, where some 4,000 years ago woodland Indians discovered the fern-draped mouth of Mammoth Cave, whose ceilings sparkle with delicate white gypsum crystals. What must have amazed the Indians was the cavern's sheer enormity: large rooms and wide corridors go on underground for miles and miles.

Little did these Indians know that they were the first to explore one of the most extensive cave systems in the world. (Its charted passages meander more than 350 miles in darkness beneath the hills, and countless others remain unexplored.) Sometime around the birth of Christ, the Indians abandoned Mammoth Cave, and it fell into obscurity until 1797. Then, according to legend, a hunter tracking a wounded bear he had shot stumbled across the opening. After this serendipitous discovery, stories spread around the globe about the natural caverns, and soon its corridors were filled with curious visitors. Weddings and balls were held in the cave's enormous rooms.

Today a variety of tours are offered by the National Park Service ranging from a quarter-mile stroll to a five-mile belly-crawling, body-squeezing trek (a warm coat is recommended for the former, and kneepads are required for the latter). One tour includes a stop at the Snowball Room, where the ceiling dazzles with frostlike nodules of gypsum.

An assortment of creatures have over the millennia adapted to the cave's environment. Colorless, eyeless fish and blind crayfish haunt the waters of Echo River. Other creatures include spiders, beetles, and cave crickets. The cave is constantly expanding in size as its water dissolves the stone and carves the caverns ever deeper down into the earth.

• • Road Trips

• Blue Ridge Parkway
• Soaring to the crests of the ancient Appalachians, America's longest scenic drive entices travelers with views of misty mountains and verdant valleys that have scarcely changed since the days of Daniel Boone.
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• Skyline Drive
• Weaving through Shenandoah National Park, the Skyline Drive is one of the loveliest roads in America.
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• Lookout Mountain Parkway
• On a clear day you may not be able to see forever, but you can come mighty close from the summit of Lookout Mountain, where panoramic vistas overlook seven states.
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• North Georgia Highroads
• Just a short hop from the gleaming glass towers of Atlanta lies a mountainous getaway little touched by any but nature's hand.
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• James River Plantations
• Some of time's finest treasures can be found along this drive, which starts in the modern city of Richmond, passes centuries-old plantations, then ends in one of the places where America began.
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• More Great Road Trips!
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