Mammoth Cave Campground

We spent three nights here in early October. The campground was pretty full when we arrived on a Saturday but was rather empty the next two nights. The sites were in good condition with clean, well-maintained restrooms nearby. The only showers are located in the nearby camp store, and operate on quarters ($1.50 for four minutes). The store itself sells mostly t-shirts and souvenirs, so don't rely on it for essentials. There are no hookups available, but there is a dump station at the entrance to the campground.

In addition to touring the cave system, there are several hiking trails in the area and river access for canoeing and fishing within a short drive. A former railroad grade serves as the basis for a rail-trail that would make an excellent bicycle trip. It's a great place to spend a few days.

Since we came in the winter season (11/1), spots were on a first-come basis but we had no problem getting a spot. Ours did not have hook-ups but there were spots available with elec-water for $50/night. Our site was paved, only slightly off-level, and clean. A small herd of deer came through the campground as we were setting up! The visitor center was a short 2 minute drive down the road. Overall a great spot. We wish we could have stayed longer.

Stayed here 10/21/19 to 10/23/19. I wasn't sure what to expect for crowds here as the whole campground is first come first serve in the fall. It turned out the campground wasn't even half full and there were tons of open sites. The sites are all very nice. There are some back-in sites and some pull-throughs. Each site has a paved pad, a concrete picnic table, and a fire ring. My site, and all the others I looked at, were huge and you had tons of space between you and your neighbors. All of the facilities were very clean and well maintained. The campground is also just down the road from the visitors center and cave tours.

The cell service here (Verizon) was much better than I expected. Most of the time I had 2 bars of LTE and it worked great, but every once in a while it would cut out and I wouldn't have any signal at all. For some reason my Jetpack worked more consistently than my phone. It ended up being good enough for me to work there for two nights.

Overall I thought this park was great. I honestly wish I could have stayed longer.

Thinking that the campground would be crowed, we made reservation for site 22. There is no way to see the site and we took one of the few left. When we arrived we found site 22 unusable by an RV as it is on a steep upward slope (18 inch drop in 20 feet). The attendant was off duty so we picked an available site in the first come/first served area that was much better. The next morning we were allowed to switch our reservation fee over to site 56 but we ended up paying fees for two separate sites for one night.

There are four loops: A for tents only; B and D for first come/first serve and C for reserve-able sites. Most sites are pretty well spaced but a high percentage of the drive through sites have the usable space on the wrong side of the unit.

Toilets are flush. Pay showers at the the camp store.

There is free wifi at the Visitor Center. We were occasionally able to get that signal our camp site.

There are many other accurate descriptions here so I'll just mention that there is also a USPS office inside the camp store building which is open with limited hours.

We were fortunate to stay on one of the two full hookup sites during the off season for half price ($25) with our Lifetime Senior Pass discount.

The campground was only 25% full for our entire week, about half tenters and half RVers.

We visited this campground from 03/28/19 until 04/04/19.

We stayed at Mammoth Cave Camground for 5 nights in late October of 2018. The campground is first come first served during the fall and winter, and we had no problems finding an open spot. I’d guess the campground was only about 20% full during the time we were there.

All campsites are dry, no water or electricity, except for two sites near the campground entry station that offer full hookups. Those two full hookup sites go for $50 per night and may be designated for camp hosts during the busier summer months. During our stay, they appeared to be first come first served like all of the other campsites in the campground.

Our site, 71, was a perfectly level pull through with asphalt pad and generous spacing between the other sites in the loop. The heavily treed landscape created a welcomed feeling of privacy.

Each loop offered a clean, stocked and well maintained bathroom facility with flush toilets and running water. There were also potable water spigots in each loop for use in filling your RV fresh water tanks. There are centralized trash and recycle dumpsters located on the main drive in the campground.

The NPS Rangers managing the campground were friendly, knowledgeable and a pleasure to deal with. They did state that the campground is most always full during the late spring and summer months, so if you can’t make it here during the fall or winter, you would be wise to make advance reservations on www.recreation.gov up to 6 months prior to your desired arrival date.

The camp store, located just outside of the campground, offers a variety of snack and food items as well as some household and camp items in case you forgot anything. The same building that hosts the camp store also contains coin operated shower and laundry facilities. Both of which appeared to be clean and functional.

Aside from the caves, there are plenty of other activities to keep you busy during your stay. There are plenty of trails to hike, a nice bike trail that runs along the old Mammoth Cave Railroad line, fishing in the green river and endless wildlife viewing opportunities. No fishing license is required if you are fishing within the park boundaries.

Finally, and I cannot stress this enough, the Cave tours are an AWESOME MUST SEE attraction. As others have said in their reviews, the tours also sell out way in advance, so don’t wait until you get to the park to get your tickets. Just like the campsites, you can reserve your tickets well in advance of your arrival by visiting www.recreation.gov.

We did one tour each day, although you could conceivably do more than one per day. The tours we selected were each approximately 2 - 2.5 hours in duration, and each highlighted different areas, features and formations of the world’s largest cave system. Please be sure to read the descriptions of the tours before you purchase your tickets, because some of them require visitors to climb up a large number of steps and/or bend and contort your body to make it through small or awkwardly shaped cave passages. On our very first tour, one of the participants was literally in tears by the time they got just halfway up the stairs out of the cave. Most tour areas in the caves are lighted by dim electrical lighting, but there are some tours that are only lit by handheld gas lanterns. If you get a chance, I would recommend trying one if the lantern tours.

We found both Verizon and ATT cell coverage to range from poor, to nonexistent, throughout the park and campground, with most times only being able to secure 3G or 1X coverage. In the campground, with a Verizon JetPack and an external directional MIMO antenna, we were able to secure useable 4G service at approximately 10 Mbps down and 3 Mbps up.

All in all, we would absolutely recommend staying here. We thought the campground was nicely laid out, conveniently located and well managed and maintained.

Campground is average, nothing special to remark. Wouldn’t camp here in anything bigger than 35 ft. We are 34 ft and barely fit. Most pull through loops are on the wrong side. Rest of facilities are dated and a little disappointing compared to other National Parks we have visited. The visitors center has an awesome interpretive section though. The cave tours are incredible though. It’s hard to fathom how large the cave system is. We did the historic tour which told the very interesting history of the cave. Would love to come back for a longer cave tour. Cell signal was very spotty.

If you're here to see the caves, you can't get closer, unless you stay in the hotel connected to the visitor center. The visitor center from which all the cave tours leave is an easy 5 minute walk from the campground. Be sure to reserve your tour in advance as they sell out, especially over the weekends. The campground, on the other hand, was mostly empty when we visited in mid-April and we had our choice of sites with very few neighbors. The ranger directed us to loop C (sites 54-90) because it had plenty of pull-throughs. We thought our site (#85) was ideal because it was a pull-through, it was perfectly level, and had enough break in the tree cover to allow decent solar generation with our portable panel. The area around the fire ring did get a little soggy when it rained, however. The site separation was nice and the campground is fairly densely wooded, though you can definitely see all the neighbors.

In addition to the cave tours, the campground has direct access to the hiking & biking rail trail that runs roughly parallel to the main park road. There are several different small hiking trails around the visitor center that can be done individually or linked together for a longer trek. There are tons of other, longer trails in the park, but the "backcountry" trails are all on the other side of the Green River and can only be accessed by using the Green River Ferry (which has weight limits and may not accept RVs in times of high or low water) or entering the park from an ancillary road. If you're here mostly for the longer hiking, there are several campgrounds in the backcountry area that would work better.

Cell service was very poor (1 bar 4G on AT&T) but we were able to use the free wifi broadcast from the campground office in our site. It was definitely faster in the early mornings when loads were less, and would never be enough to stream, but should be enough to check weather and email even if the campground is full. The camp store is pretty well stocked with snacks and emergency food items and there's a post office in the camp store building. I think I'd give this 5 stars if the bathrooms had showers.