As promised in our last post, we have another post about the rock of South Dakota, but this time we are going underground to see it! Did you know that South Dakota has extensive cave systems? We had to check some of them out while in the area, so we spent some time in both Jewel Cave National Monument, and Wind Cave National Park.
Jewel Cave is currently listed as the fifth longest cave in the world, but airflow studies show that the majority of the cave system has yet to be mapped and explored. It is likely that at some point in the future, this cave will move right on up that list! While there are many different formations in the cave – including draperies, popcorn, stalactites, and stalagmites – the primary formation here is calcite crystals, which are what led to the name “Jewel Cave.” They literally COVER the walls throughout much of the cave, but we were a little disappointed to see that they are mostly covered with dirt and mud, and don’t look very jewel-like. If you look closely in the photos above you will see what looks like brown bumps all over the walls of the cave. Those are the calcite crystals. We can only imagine how magnificent it would be if the crystals weren’t covered in the dirt. We did the Scenic Tour of the cave, which was a half mile long and lasted an hour and twenty minutes. There are also 734 steps along this route, but some of them go up, while others go down, with lots of walking in between, so we didn’t find it to be too strenuous.
We allowed a full day for our visit to Wind Cave National Park, so in addition to a guided tour (here we did the Natural Entrance Tour) we also had time for a hike as well as a drive along some of the park’s roads where viewing wildlife is common.
The Cold Brook Canyon Trail is a 2.8 mile round-trip out and back hike that cuts through a field filled with prairie dogs before entering a small canyon and ending at a fence at the park boundary. It is rated as moderately strenuous in the park literature, but other than one steep hill (down at the beginning of the hike, up at the end) we found it to be pretty easy. The scenery is beautiful, and in addition to the prairie dogs, we did see one lone bison off in the distance on a hillside. The prairie dogs are definitely what made this hike, though! Watching them run around, interact with each other, and call out our presence to the others was immensely entertaining! We spent so much time watching them, that we had to hurry after our hike to eat lunch and not be late for our cave tour! One word of caution if you decide to do this trail though…be on the lookout for ticks. They were everywhere, and we caught four of them attempting to make us a tasty snack.
Wind Cave is, of course, the star of the show here, so we made sure to get tickets for a tour. As mentioned earlier, we did the Natural Entrance Tour which is 2/3 of a mile long and took about an hour and fifteen minutes. There are some stairs to negotiate, so be sure you can do those before booking. Don’t be mistaken, you do not enter the cave on this tour through the natural entrance. It is small (only 10 inches wide!) and not a space we would want to squeeze through! The ranger does take you to it, though, and talks about its cultural and historic significance prior to starting the tour underground.
Remember before when we said Jewel Cave is the fifth longest cave system in the world? Well, Wind Cave is the sixth! These are some big caves! And while the primary formation in Jewel Cave is the calcite crystals, here it is boxwork, though boxwork is also made of calcite. Instead of crystals, however, the boxwork protrudes from the walls of the cave in thin fins of calcite that intersect with one another at various angles, creating a box-like look along the walls. It is pretty obvious in the photos above. Boxwork is thought to be more abundant here than in any other cave in the world!
Once we emerged from underground and spent some time perusing the visitor center, it was getting later in the day and time to start heading back to the Bigfoot, but we decided to take the back roads along part of the park’s wildlife loop to see what we could find along the way. And what we found was some wild, beautiful, untamed prairie, and lots and lots of bison. It was a beautiful and serene drive and the perfect end to a day full of adventure!
If you find yourself in southwestern South Dakota, we highly recommend a visit to these two amazing places. Our tip, though, is to secure tour tickets in advance on recreation.gov. We are so glad we did! Both parks advertise that some tickets are held for same-day sales, but getting those tickets can be hit or miss. Especially at Wind Cave, people line up before the visitor center even opens to try to score a same-day ticket. We talked to one man who was able to get one, but not until the 5:30 tour time, so he had been waiting around all day for his tour. We also saw people who were turned away because there weren’t any more tickets available. Don’t be one of them, if you can help it! Plan ahead a bit and purchase those tickets ahead of time!
There will be one more post coming from South Dakota, and this time from a spectacular state park that can compete with almost any national park out there! Check back in a week or two to learn all about it!
Until next time!
