Louisville Mega Cavern’s Mega Zips: Our Review

On a hot summer day, we ventured to Louisville, Kentucky to try out the Mega Zips at Louisville Mega Cavern. Since it’s 60 degrees Fahrenheit year-round in the cavern, it was a perfect respite from the heat. And it was a blast!

One of our family’s travel bucket list goals is to ride as many zip lines as possible during our journeys, and this one was really fun. For more details about my zip line rating system, please see this page.

Note: It is hard to get good pictures in a dark, underground cavern, so you’ll have to use your imagination a bit.

Another note: We did not receive any free or discounted rates from this business. I also did not inform them of my status as a travel blogger.

Date of Our Experience

We tried out Louisville Mega Cavern’s Mega Zips in July, 2018. Summer is a great time of year to be in the 60 degree climate, despite being a little wet and muddy from the humidity outside. It is open year-round, and it is dry in the winter.

Cost, Location and Details:

Details about Louisville Mega Cavern’s whole facility can be found on their website. Specific information about the Mega Zips zip line adventure can be found here. We went on a weekday, which saved us about $10 a person. I would definitely recommend you go during the week if you can, as this is not an inexpensive adventure. Tickets can be purchased in advance or at the door, but I would highly recommend you purchase in advance. We saw someone that wasn’t able to go on the zip lines because his party hadn’t booked in advance, and the next opening was many hours away.

 

 

Type of Adventure:

Mega Zips offers six different lines (in addition to the practice line). Six is a pretty typical number of lines compared to other zip line places in our experience. But what makes the experience truly unique is that the cavern is pretty much dark, except for some mood lighting, head lamps on the riders and staff, and a few other lights for safety. So you’re riding on fast lines in a very, very dark place

Staff did a good job of pointing out where to look to see cool views of the caverns on each line. At one point one line crossed over the top of the 2nd line, which made it a little more exciting. The final line was a side-by-side race. (Tip: Try to race with someone your own size in order to make it a real contest. 🙂 )

The guides also shared an interesting fact that Louisville Mega Caverns has the top four longest underground suspension bridges in the world. A couple of them were truly pretty long and worthy of recognition. The fourth longest one was maybe 12′ long. In other words, I don’t think there are a lot of underground suspension bridges out there, so they have the market kind of cornered on underground suspension bridges.

Here are a few pictures from the lines. Again, just a disclaimer that it’s tough to get great pictures underground.

 

Obligatory family pic

 

World’s longest underground suspension bridge

 

Another shot of the suspension bridge

 

The guides explained that the mud found in the seams on the side of the limestone cavern is the same mud they use at spas. Our daughter decided to try it out.

 

The first line…the Zipline to Hell

Experience Level:

This adventure is great for both new and experienced zip liners. Our party had both, and all fared well. We had two staff members for the group of 13 participants that went in our group. Zach and Jakkob were professional and fun. They had a dry but funny sense of humor and really seemed to enjoy what they do. The Cavern in general also offered up some dry humor for patrons.

Our guides assured us they were kind of sober.

 

Can’t say they didn’t warn us…..

Other Features:

Prior to becoming an adventure park, this cavern served as a limestone quarry for almost 50 years. It actually spans under the Louisville Zoo, a nearby highway, and an abandoned K-Mart, among other things.

In addition to the Mega Zips, Louisville Mega Cavern offers (for additional fees) a tram tour about the history of the caverns (your guides on the zip line will give you a brief history as well), a ropes course, and a BMX bike park. Needless to say, it’s a HUGE cavern. You’ll also see where the state of Kentucky stores all of its road salt for winters. (Not exciting, just to point out that the adventure park is not the only thing down in that space.)

One tip that they don’t mention: Louisville Mega Zips require you to wear close-toed shoes. But they don’t mention that you might want to wear shoes that you don’t mind getting a little muddy, especially in the summer.

Overall Rating:

   

The lines themselves were fun and on par with many of our prior zip line experiences. But the experience of riding them in an underground cavern with all the cool lighting made this a truly unique and fun experience.