EDMONSON COUNTY, Ky. — Ask many of the visitors at Mammoth Cave National Park and they all have a similar story about a canceled summer vacation.
"Yeah, I was trying to go out to Yellowstone and that trip kind of fell through," Chris Posey, a visitor from Atlanta, said.
"We were going to go to Niagara Falls, but we can't now because New York crosses Ohio off its list, so we decided to come here," Anna MacClements said.
Like many other families throughout the country, the MacClementses saw their vacation plans foiled by travel restrictions brought on by the surging number of coronavirus cases. So instead of heading northeast, the MacClementses decided to drive six-and-a-half hours in the opposite direction from their home in central Ohio to Mammoth Cave National Park in Kentucky.
"Even still things are not entirely open so we want to go to places where we can still be outside and not be completely terrified of the virus," Adi MacClements said.
They aren't alone. Mammoth Cave National Park public information officer Molly Schroer said the park has stayed busy since reopening the cave tour and visitor center in June, with most of its visitors coming from Kentucky and the surrounding states.
"I think we're still seeing a variety of people coming through especially because we're near I-65 and for people who are traveling northbound or southbound, we're an easy stop off the interstate," she said.
Schroer says the pandemic has forced them to limit cave tour tickets. With the increased traffic, the park has been selling out days in advance, something the MacClements family learned the hard way.
"If we had known reservations were necessary, then we would have made reservations a long time ago," Amanda MacClements said. "I thought we'd just do some of the trails without it, but we're making the best of it. We're having a lot of fun."
"We're glad we can be a destination for so many pepole around here to get out, get out of their house, stretch their legs, get some fresh air," Schroer said.
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