Jewel Cave NM, Custer SD

Monday August 6
Pronghorn (commonly called antelope) ought to be the state mammal of Wyoming. You can see them in large herds all over the plains of Wyoming. They must be smarter than deer, however, because we never saw them crossing the road and never saw a pronghorn roadkill.

While driving through eastern Wyoming and the western edge of the Black Hills we called ahead to Jewel Cave National Monument and made reservations for some cave tours. Jewel Cave is famous for its calcite crystals that looked like jewels to the Michaud brothers, when they discovered the original 14" opening to the cave. They used dynamite to widen the entrance, but that entrance is still the only known natural entrance to the cave. After rushing to town to stake their mining claim, they realized the crystals were not gems and had no monetary value. So they opened the cave for tourists and explored about 2 miles of the cave. Today almost 140 miles of the cave have been explored and mapped, making Jewel Cave the second longest cave in the world. Based on the volume and patterns of the winds inhaled and exhaled from the cave, it is estimated that only about 5% of the cave has been found.

Our first tour was the Lantern Tour, which enters through the historic entrance. This part of the cave is not lighted and each visitor is issued an oil lantern, our only source of illumination. The park ranger is dressed in a historic uniform, making the tour much like it would have been in the early 1900s during the early years of the cave tours. Since we were at the natural opening, bats and pack rats use this area, and we did find bats flying in the cave. The group was able to choose which section of the cave we wanted to explore and ascended and descended very old and steep wooden stairs along the route. We had to duck-walk through a few very low sections of the cave, but we also entered some large rooms. It was a very exciting and interesting tour. There was only one other family in our group (6 folks total), so it was a very intimate tour.

Our second tour was the Scenic Tour which enters via an elevator from the visitor's center, almost a mile from the historic entrance. This tour route is much more developed, and we had a larger group: 34 people. It is lighted to highlight the scenic features of the cave and follows paved walkways with aluminum stairs and bridges with hand rails. This one should have been called the "Tourist's Tour". It passes through some very large rooms and some of the most scenic and unusual formations in the cave, but is not as intimate and exciting as the Lantern Tour. I'm glad we took both tours. It's sort of a then and now thing.

After the cave tours we drove about 35 miles to Wind Cave NP and made camp there in Elk Mountain CG.