Queen of Savings was provided with a sample product at no cost to me for review purposes only. This review is based solely on my personal opinion and experience and results may vary from person to person.
We recently took a trip to Cave City, KY and visited a few attractions there and the Kentucky Down Under Adventure Zoo & Mammoth Onyx Cave was one of them. Cave City, KY is only a short 1 1/2 hour drive from our home outside of Nashville, TN and was great for a quick getaway that did not trap the kids in the car for hours. The Adventure Zoo and Cave are open year around and they even offer Season Passes and Family Passes.
Enter through the bright blue building to purchase your tickets and you will exit out through the back side in to the zoo/park area and follow the path to reach the animals.
The Bird Garden features a wide variety of birds including the Laughing Kookaburra, we tried to make him laugh but were not able to. There is also a Land of Lories where you can walk inside and feed and hold the Lorikeets.
The Lemurs were really cool and on the day we visited there was a group of kids there for a field trip and they were very noisy and this one Lemur, not sure if he is the dominant male or not, but he was flying all around cage and pacing back and forth, it was cool to see how active and aware he was. When you purchase your ticket you will be given times that the different events take place, picture above right is the animal show we watched when we visited.
It was pretty warm on the day we visited, in the mid 90’s so it was nice to go inside the gift shop to browse and cool off and drool over the yummy fudge they had for sale.
While you are waiting for the cave tour there are neat benches outside of the cave entrance, we need one of these at home.
The Mammoth Onyx Cave stays a cool 60 degrees year around, very nice on this hot day. In the left picture above you can see an area of water that once had quite a few fish. We were told that people started using it is a wishing well which contaminated the water and killed off the majority of the fish. On the tour you can see and identify stalagmites and stalactites, cave popcorn, and cave cauliflower. This was the first time any of our kids had been in a cave and the short 30 minute tour was just right, keeping their interest.
After the cave tour we entered the Outback Walkabout which was really cool, check out the wallaby, it was not phased by us being in there with it at all. We were inside the fence with these animals, not just looking at them through the fence. The Emu pictured above loves to be petted, as soon as it saw people it laid down waiting for everyone to come by and see it.
It was so cool to be walking around and see Kangaroos go hopping by!
Our guide told us all about these Red Kangaroos, both of the ones we were able to pet, mother and daughter, had Joey’s in their pouches!
Next we visited the Woolshed where we learned all about the different types of wool and sheep, we were given the opportunity to milk a cow and then we saw a demonstration of a how a Border Collie herds sheep. We have a Shetland Sheepdog and she has her herding instinct so the kids are always wondering why she tries to herd other animals and even them so it was awesome for them to see it in action.
After we finished at the Woolshed we took the horse drawn wagon, pulled by Shires, the tallest breed of horses in the world, beautiful horses that look like Clydesdales but are even bigger than they are. The picture on the right was our view of the Kentucky Landscape as we rode away.
We took at look at the massive Buffalo that dwarfed the deer lying nearby on our way out. In the front of the park we found a log that had the sign attached, click the image to make it bigger.
The sign tells us that they are planning a new entrance and these chainsaw carvings, plus many more will be standing along the entrance.
We really enjoyed our trip to the Kentucky Down Under Zoo and Mammoith Onyx Cave and it was both a fun and learning experience and The Caraway Family would like to thank Kentucky Down Under for inviting us out for a day of fun in the sun. If you are a homeschooling family like we are, you can visit Kentucky Down Under for fun and check off a day of school while learning about Australia, its animals and caverns. While in the area we also visited the Mammoth Cave National Park which was beautiful. On the way up to the park be sure to pull off by the sign and snap and photo and also check out the Sand Cave Trail and read about the story of Floyd Collins, a celebrated pioneer cave explorer who died in Sand Cave after dislodging a rock from the ceiling, pinning his leg and trapping him in the cave. While visiting Cave City, KY we stayed at the Yogi Bear’s Jellystone Park Camp – Resort which is only minutes away from both Kentucky Down Under Zoo and Mammoth Cave National Park. The Jellystone Resort has everything from primitive campsites to RV hookups to cabins, plus your stay includes use of the 2 pools, splash pad, 300 foot water slide, Jump pillow, nightly movies at the Pavilion, miniature golf and more.
Naomi says
Mammoth Cave is on my bucket list, and I hope to visit it in the near future! Looks like a lot of fun!
Stefanie says
This looks like such a great family activity. I wish I lived closer, my kids would love it!
Cristine says
Love the interactions with the animals. Great for families – will have to visit one day.
Linda Manns Linneman says
I love this. This would be great for the whole family. The scenery is beautiful. My grandchildren would love going there. Thank you so much for sharing