Roller Coaster Road Trip 2014: Zip-lining at Louisville Mega Cavern

One of the most daring things Rich, Eddie and I did on our trip was zip-lining at the Louisville Mega Cavern. Now the three of us had zip-lined before, on our last trip, but that was in a camp in Ohio, and it was outside. This one seemed way different...zip-lining in a cave.  I was intrigued!

The Louisville Mega Cavern is an old mine under the roadways of Louisville, Kentucky that's been transformed into a tourist attraction, and a cool one at that.  I'd find out later in our trip that this whole area of the country is full of caves (It's also prime sinkhole country, too!), and since there aren't many...any...caves here on Long Island, I definitely wanted to check some out.  The attraction is made up of over 17 miles of underground corridors and offers not only zip-lining, but tram tours and an aerial ropes challenge called Mega Quest.  Though we would've liked to have taken the tram tour, we only had time for one thing and it was the zip-line.

When I was researching things to do and I saw that this Mega Cavern had zip-lining, I quickly called my pals to see if they'd both be interested.  They were and reservations were made.  We got to the cavern 15 minutes early, as we were asked to do, and the butterflies were already kicking in.  Once we signed in, we had to wait for our guides in the Mega Quest area (which was hella cool), and before you knew it, we were gearing up for our adventure.

Once we were all dressed for our adventure, it was off to a quick practice run on a 'bunny zip,' which was located right there in the staging area.  Since the three of us, and most of the 10 or so people in our group, had zip-lined before, this was a piece of cake and eased at least my mind going into the first of 6 zips on the course.  That didn't last long, though, as our first zip-line was called 'Devil's Drop.' 

Now I know it's hard to make out in this picture, but this photo was taken at the top of Devil's Drop.  Those are little red lights waaaayyyy down there within the darkest reaches of the cavern and there's the line across the bottom.  Though I'd zipped before, those butterflies were fluttering oh so wildly in my stomach as I stepped to the jumping off platform.  I have to say, though, that once you jumped, it was nothing but a pure adrenaline rush, as were the rest of the zip-lines on the course.  

Our guides, Joe and Mallory, were awesome, friendly and knowledgeable, and the others in our group, an Aussie couple in particular, were great companions, as well.  In addition to the zip-lines, there were two 'challenge bridges,' which I hadn't worried about until I was actually on them.  Joe told us that people usually love them or hate them and I definitely did not like them.   Even though we were hooked on to lines overhead, it was terrifying to walk across the weak-looking scaffolds perched way above the darkened depths below. Picture Indiana Jones in the Temple of Doom.

Joe and Mallory took a selfie with my camera, lol

All in all, zip-lining in a cave was terrifying and exhilarating at the same time.  I highly recommend the Louisville Mega Cavern, especially for the zip-lining, but even just to check out via tram.  It's definitely one of the coolest attractions in Louisville.  In the meantime, check out some of the other things we did on our Roller Coaster Road Trip 2014 below and stay tuned for more...

Hitting the Roller Coaster Road...and then some!

New States

Kings Island and The Beast

The Smoky Mountain Alpine Coaster: Hella Cool!

Holiday World

The Coasters of Holiday World

The Big Four Bridge and Waterfront Park