When we got close enough to have a good idea of when we would be arriving, we decided to go to Jewel Cave National Monument first and take the 2PM tour, the last one of the day. We thoroughly enjoyed the trip into the cave, although I wound up not taking a single picture during the tour. There was just so much to see that I spent the whole tour trying to absorb as much as I could. It was marvelously overwhelming.
The tour lasted about an hour and a half, starting and ending with an elevator ride that took us about 23 stories deep into the cave. The route we took was over a narrow pathway paved with concrete and incorporating metal spans and stairways to get around, into and out of, various areas in the cave. Much of the construction of the pathways was done by the CCC in the 1930s, and they did a wonderful job. Although it was a fairly strenuous course (over 700 stairs in the mile and a half we covered), it was sturdy and everything felt safe and secure. The lighting was well placed and bright, and the ranger leading the tour was very effective in explaining a bit of the historical and geological significance of what we were seeing.
The cave was nothing short of magnificent and the tour definitely left me wanting to see more. Since November is the off-season there was only one tour offered, we will have to return in the summer months to take some of the other tours available. After the tour we wandered around a bit in the above-ground part of the monument, also a beautiful area.
Joe relaxing on a bench behind the visitor's center
We stayed in Rapid City Saturday night, about a half hour's drive from the cave.
views of the downtown area of Rapid City, taken through the windshield
There are about 1000 bison in the park, we saw several herds grazing close to the road and more off in the distance.
When we first saw this flock of big horned sheep they were standing so still we almost mistook them for statues. They are on the lawn of the park headquarters building, which is closed for the season.
We saw quite a few white tailed deer in the park. This is a buck who was accompanied by three does when we saw him.
A flock of 20-25 wild turkeys we sat and watched until they disappeared from sight. They are beautiful birds and they are can run very fast when they want to!
Sylvan Lake
A view of Mt Rushmore from one scenic pullout
and drove through several very small one-lane tunnels
Yes, that tiny green square is a tunnel!
Close-up of a tunnel wall
One of the roads we took through the park, the Needles Highway, goes through an area full of gigantic rock formations that dwarf everything else around them. My pictures do not begin to do justice to their magnificence and there is no way to accurately describe how imposing a presence they have.
The Camry (bottom left) provides a reference to the size of this formation
Our drive through Custer State Park exceeded every expectation we had, it was thoroughly enjoyable the park we headed for our final stop on the trip: Wind Cave National Park. As we approached the entrance to the park we saw the smoke from a nearby fire:
The Black Hills were devastated by the Jasper fire which burned over 83,000 acres in late August and early September 2000, and the devastation the fire caused is still very visible in the area. Asking about it at the visitor's center, we learned that the smoke we saw was from a controlled burn, thankfully. To mitigate damage from fires, underbrush in forested areas is cleared and piled up every summer, then burned off during the fall and winter, and that was what we were seeing. From what we have read this approach to fire management has been quite successful, cleared areas (including the visitor center area of Jewel Cave) which burned during the Jasper fire burned much cooler and, it is believed, are recovering more quickly. Here is a picture from the area showing the piles of cleared undergrowth awaiting its controlled burn:
Again, because we were visiting off-season there was only a single tour being offered, so we signed right up for it. This was a tour obviously designed for maximum accessibility, not a lot of walking or stairs. We were taken to areas on two levels of the cave by elevator (going down about 350 feet at the deepest point!) and then taken to a couple of "rooms" with interesting features and lots of time to look around. It was a good tour, the ranger conducting it was very knowledgeable and personable, and we learned a lot about what we were seeing from geological and historical perspectives. In contrasting the tours of J and W-Caves I can see the need for both types because they do address different visitor populations. Many fewer people could experience the wonder of being in a cave if all the tour options required the stamina required on a fairly strenuous route.
Again, I didn't take any pictures in the cave. Didn't even take my camera into W-Cave after deciding the day before that there is really no way my pictures could convey the essence of the experience. I figured I would have wound up with a series of pictures of rocks, so I decided to skip the hassle of hauling the camera and taking them.
After the Wind Cave tour we headed home. The trip was a lot of fun, we saw some magnificent sights and stepped out of our routine for a few days--in other words, a perfect vacation. Hope you, the reader of this, enjoyed my narrative and pictures. However, if you have not been to the Black Hills and their caves and ever have the opportunity, do not hesitate to go, it is well worth travel from anywhere, it is that spectacular!
