Pensacola Avenue - Beneath Your Feet

The entrance to Pensacola Avenue.

NPS Photo/ Thomas DiGiovannangelo

Quick Facts

Location:

Mammoth Cave, KY 42259

Significance:

Historic signatures of early cave guides and landmark rock formations.

Designation:

World Heritage Site and Biosphere Reserve

Amenities

1 listed

Historical/Interpretive Information/Exhibits

Pensacola Avenue a once -toured passage off the main trail, lies 253 feet beneath you off the Historic Tour route. Pensacola avenue starts as a tubular passage then opens into a tall canyon passage; it is about 2000 feet long.  A 1940’s tourist guidebook says:

“The dry and sandy floor elicited the naming of this avenue after that pleasant city in Florida.”

The earliest record of the name Pensacola Avenue is from 1860, but the passage was called Pensicoa and Pensico in the 1840’s. Pensacola avenue starts as a tubular passage then opens into a tall canyon passage; it is about 2000 feet long. There is a large nodular dripstone formation perched on a ledge that looks like a Pineapple Bush and another large boulder that is called the sea turtle, this boulder has numerous signatures from the 1800’s and also has an inscription from Stephen Bishop to his wife Charlotte.

“Charlotte Brown, the flower of Mammoth Cave.”
 

NPS Mobile App Users: Click here to watch a video of a ranger in Pensacola Avenue. 

Duration:

49.533 seconds

Join Ranger Mary as she shows you Pensacola Avenue, 253 feet beneath the surface.