Old Guide's Cemetery Trail

Old Guide's Cemetery Trail is a short out-and-back from Sunset Terraces lodge parking to the gated cemetery. The walk is about 0.13 mile round trip: roughly 0.07 mile to the gate, then back the same way. Allow 15 to 20 minutes to read the signs. This is a quick history stop, not a scenic hike; it fits easily around a cave tour if you want to meet some of the people behind Mammoth Cave's story.

The route follows a shaded footpath from the lot to Heritage Trail, then takes the short cemetery spur. The mapped spur is dirt, so don't count on a completely paved walk. Visitors can see the graves and interpretive signs from outside the fence. Dogs are allowed on park surface trails on a leash no longer than six feet.

Stephen Bishop is one of Mammoth Cave's best-known early guides and explorers. He led cave tours for nearly 20 years, first while enslaved and later as a free man. His carved headstone is one of the details to look for inside the fence.

This was a community burial ground used from the early 1840s into the late 1850s, before the park existed. Three people who died during a winter 1842 tuberculosis experiment are buried here, too. Some of the stone huts built for those patients remain inside the cave and can be seen on public tours, connecting this little cemetery with the underground history nearby.