Jewel Cave, Wind Cave, and Mount Rushmore

7-19-2016

DAY 31

Today was a steaming hot day, so exploring caves was the perfect activity. Once again, we had an early morning because we wanted to get a tour of the Jewel Cave National Monument (3rd longest cave in the world), but it is on a first come, first serve basis. So, we woke up in Custer, SD and drove about 20 min to the Jewel Cave. Even though we arrived about 30 min before they opened, the line was pretty long. We were able to get a 9:00 am "Scenic" tour which was perfect. I was really excited to check out the caves, especially because they are one of the last frontiers.

The tour started by taking an elevator down into the cave. It was 49 degrees in the cave, so we brought some layers to put on. You start off in this big "room" and continue on through a labyrinth of trails. There are a total of 182 miles of cave that have been discovered, but they think that is only about 3% of the total cave system. Holy cow, was it awesome! It was like nothing I have even been in before. The tour guide explained how the cave was formed and about the different features. There are stalactites, stalagmites, flowstone, draperies, and popcorn. Once of the most impressive formations was a "piece of bacon" which totally looks like a piece of bacon that's 2 stories high! It's hard to believe that not only all of this formed naturally, but also that it is all underground. After about 1.5 hours, we took an elevator up about 30 stories (over 300 ft) to reach the surface where we were blasted with the heat of the day. 

Our goal was to see another cave, so we got in the car and drove back to Custer for a yummy lunch at the Baker's Cafe. We also checked out some "Art on Buffalos" (a spin off of "Art on Cows) in Custer. Then we headed about 30 min south to get to the Wind Cave National Park. We were able to get on the Fairgrounds Tour which meant we had about 1.5 hours to wait. It was really hot, so we just rested and read. There hasn't been a whole lot of down time on our trip, so when we cheered that there would be a 1.5 hour wait, the park ranger looked at us kind of funny.

The Wind Cave tour began at an elevator which took us down about 20 stories. This cave was totally different than the Jewel Cave, even though they are pretty close to each other. The most prominent formation was the box formation. In this cave, we were lucky to be short - anyone over 5 foot had to duck. The total number of discovered miles is 143 which makes it the 7th longest cave in the world (they think only about 10% has been discovered). But it is all within 1 sq mile on the surface which makes it the most tightly packed, compact cave in the world. When we got to the frost formations, we stopped to admire their fragile beauty. They look just like frost, but are crystal-like. They are these stunning formations hundreds of feet underground and without artificial light, would never be seen. After about 1.5 hours, our tour was finished and we headed back up to the hot surface.

Then we drove back to Custer, got some dinner at a food truck Maria's Mexican food truck. Our destination for the evening was Wall, SD. We took an indirect route on the Iron Mountain Road and ended up getting to see some surprise, unique, and FREE views of Mount Rushmore (even through tunnels). It was a crazy road that had some cool rock tunnels and wound around itself like a rollercoaster. Since the road ended only 2 miles from Mt Rushmore, we zipped over for a quick peek. However, the parking cost wasn't covered by our park pass, so we turned around and headed east to Wall. It was pretty great that all of the amazing things we saw today were completely free (except for gas money). Once again, it was a full day, but well worth it.