July 22nd Wind Cave National Park

After breakfast I packed up a picnic lunch and we headed out to Wind Cave National Park which was a scenic 21 mile journey from our base camp in Custer State Park. Along the way we saw lots of pronghorn and prairie dogs within Custer SP and once we crossed into Wind Cave NP we were delighted to see the large bison herd that is maintained there. Wind Cave was discovered by settlers in 1881 (American Indians knew about long before that) and became the 7th national park in 1903. The park is "free" with the exception of cave tours which were priced between $7.00 to $23.00 per person depending on the tour you select. Holders of Senior or Access National Passes receive a 50% discount on tour prices but those of us with the standard yearly National Park Pass do not receive a discount. Leon and I selected the "Fairgrounds Tour" and after a brief wait we lined up with 28 other tourists to ride the elevators down into the cavern. As we began our tour we discovered that Wind Cave is very different than the caves we've visited back east. The caves at home are damp, or down right wet with rivers and lakes within them. Wind Cave is dry, stays at constant 53 degrees and doesn't have any animals or insects that live in it due to the lack of water. The cave is currently listed as the 4th longest in the world and it is a maze structure with multi-levels that all fit within one square mile of land. The most amazing feature of this cave is it's unusual and abundant formation called boxwork. It is nearly square in nature and resembles cubby holes you'd find in a post office. Our tour explored portions of both the upper and middle levels where we saw lots of boxwork and some popcorn and frostwork formations. The tour was strenuous with 450 stairs along it's route with one flight of 90 steps up! The cave has not been modified for tourists, meaning it's passage ways have not been enlarged or the pathways made level so there was a lot of bending and ducking that needed to be done which I though really added to the enjoyment of the tour. The tour lasted a short 1 1/2 hours, we could have loved to stay down in the cavern for many more to continue to explore. It was fascinating! After our cave tour we took the time to view the exhibits which covered the formation of the cave, it's human history, it's becoming a national park and the prairie land above the cave which supports a variety of wildlife. I stamped my National Park Passport with the Wind Cave stamp and we then headed out to the park's lovely picnic area for lunch where we watched deer grazing as we ate our sandwiches. Back in Custer State Park we stopped at the State Game Lodge to enjoy a couple of adult beverages and we laughed and talked with the bartenders. We told them of our plan to head to Sturgis before motorcycle week started and they both recommended we skip it. They said the SP wasn't anything special and that the crowds of bikers were already beginning to grow. They warned us it gets pretty rough there and we may not enjoy it. In it's place they recommended we detour to Glacier National Park before we headed into Yellowstone, so that became our new plan and we were both pretty excited by it. After dinner back at camp we attended an evening ranger program within the campground about the history of Custer State Park and then retired as the next day we had reservations for a tour at Jewel Cave National Monument.

If you are ever in the Black Hills of South Dakota Wind Cave is a must see!