Wind Cave NP, Hot Springs SD

Tuesday August 7

Today we took two more cave tours, this time at Wind Cave NP. Wind Cave is the 4th largest cave in the world, but is the world's most complex cave system. There are ~125 miles of explored cave under one square mile of surface. Like Jewel Cave it is believed that only about 5% of the cave has been discovered. First we took the Candlelight Tour, which used candles mounted in buckets held sideways to explore unlighted, relatively primitive parts of the cave. The buckets amplified the candlelight, essentially making a primitive flashlight.. It is interesting that the historic light at Wind Cave is a candle bucket and at Jewel Cave it is an oil lantern. It is also interesting that the 2nd and 4th largest caves in the world are located within 30 miles of each other, but are not believed to be connected. Also, both have only one small known natural opening. After the Candlelight Tour we took the Fairgrounds Tour, which explores some of the larger rooms and the has many excellent examples of Wind Cave's signature "boxwork", very delicate calcite honeycomb fins.

The tour ended at about 6:00, so we boogied over to Mt. Rushmore for the evening lighting ceremony. We took the scenic route through Custer State Park and saw bison, turkey, prairie dogs and deer.Other wildlife sightings included about 10,000 bikers attending bike week at Sturgis. The motorcycle rally at Sturgis, located about 20 miles from Mt. Rushmore, has been going on this week and draws about 800,000 bikers. They have all been enjoying the same parks that we have been visiting in the South Dakota Black Hills. Consequently, they have been swarming around us all week. You can't even pull out of a diner without running over 4 bikes.

I visited Mt. Rushmore about 20 years ago, and the facilities have changed significantly since then. They have built a large parking deck and all-new visitor's centers, gift stores and cafes. There is also a huge new amphitheater. When I was there it was fairly small and a quaint place I liked it better before, but I don't know how they could handle all the people that come now with the old facilities. The worst part is that they built the new visitor's center on top of the restaurant used as a setting in Alfred Hitchcock's "North By Northwest". So much for historic preservation by the National Park Service. There oughta be a law. I really like Mt. Rushmore. It appeals to my technical curiosity. I wish we had left more time to see it, but now it is time to go home.