Wind Cave/Crazy Horse/Custer State Park

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Day 19 – July 13

Wind Cave National Park and Hot Springs, SD

We had breakfast at the campsite.  Then we got to the Visitors Center at Wind Cave National Park at 7:45 A.M. in advance of the 8:00 opening to be sure we got tix to the tours we wanted. Getting there at this time worked out as we were about 15th in line, and there were dozens of people behind us already. We got tix for the “Natural Entrance Tour” and the “Fairground Tour”, both about one and a half hours, and back to back. We got on the wait list for the 1:30 “Candlelight Tour”. The first tour was the “Natural Entrance Tour” at 8:40 A.M. Our guide was an uninspired college student who was not too great, but nice. We saw lots of neat boxwork formations in the cave, which is the signature feature of the Wind Caves.

Then we did the “Fairground Tour” at 10:20 A.M.  The guide for this tour was an older man who was more knowledgeable and passionate. This tour was similar to the first tour but more of the cave was seen on this one, and it was a bit more strenuous, but neither was really challenging. Good, interesting tours of a truly fascinating cave network. It was nice to be in mid-50 temps in the caves for a couple of hours too, nice break from the heat. Each tour had 40 people which was maybe about 10 too many. We don’t have more pics because the lighting was a bit too challenging for us amateur photographers to get good pics.

After the tours we went back to the campsite five minutes away to dry and rebuild the tent from the heavy rains the night before. This made us extremely hot and sweaty, so once we found out that we didn’t get into the “Candlelight Tour” we decided to head down to Hot Springs about 20 minutes south to go to the natural spring swimming pool there.

Once in Hot Springs we got lunch at the charmingly local Dales Family Restaurant.  The food was adequate, service was friendly, but most importantly, Em succeeded in not purchasing one of the many lovely rhinestone studded leather handbags on sale at the restaurant. As of this writing, Dales is under new ownership with the same name, but the lovely rhinestone studded handbags are now at Dales Trading Post down the road.

Then we walked across the street to swim in the largest indoor spring-fed swimming pool in the country, “Evans Plunge”. Though not as nice as the largest outdoor spring-fed pool in Glenwood Springs, Colorado, this was a refreshing “warm spring” respite. The pool floor was covered with large rounded stones which felt good on the feet. We also swam in the smaller outdoor spring-fed pool, and lay in the hot sun for a while. This was an excellent diversion for us.

 

Then on to Wildlife Loop Scenic Byway at Custer State Park.  This time, the road was not blocked by bison, and we were able to do the whole 18 miles. We encountered many lone bison, and a few herds. There were pronghorn, deer and prairie dog towns…. lots of wildlife, likely because it was nearing dusk. We drove some part of Custer State Park every day we were in this area and every time we just couldn’t believe how vast and beautiful it was.  We hope to come back to South Dakota and spend a few days just exploring the 71,000 acres of Custer State Park.

Back to the campsite for an outdoor ranger program at the small amphitheater about ferrets at 9:00 P.M. This was fun as the rangers had a very good, nerdy sense of humor. We opted out of the follow-up night search for ferrets among the prairie dog towns and instead lit a fire at the campsite and drank some beers and ate potato chips for dinner and gazed at a remarkably abundant starry sky until bedtime.

(Note: we need to go to the “Mammoth Site” next time we are near Hot Springs). (Updated Note: We did get to “Mammoth Site” a few years later…see here!)

Day 20 – July 14

Crazy Horse Memorial/Jewel Cave/Needles Highway

We had breakfast at the campsite. As we headed out of the campground we noticed a herd of bison just at the perimeter, perhaps 100 yards from our tent. If it weren’t for the campground being fenced in, the herd would have roamed right into it. Luckily, they weren’t blocking the road out of the campground at this time and we got out!

We drove about 30 minutes and bought tix at Jewel Cave National Monument for the 4:00 P.M. cave tour, the only time slot with tix still available for the day. Then we headed about 30 minutes north to the Crazy Horse Memorial, a privately funded memorial. There were a lot of people at this expansive memorial but not too crazy. Only Crazy Horse’s face is complete right now. Workers were up in the mountain working on the sculpture, which when completed will be significantly larger than Mount Rushmore!

They provide a cheap quick bus tour that got us much closer to the work in progress. After the bus ride, we visited the museum grounds and watched a film about the memorial, all of which was very impressive. We even got to take home a rock that was blasted or chiseled from the memorial during sculpting efforts. After a quick lunch of hot dogs we headed back for our cave tour. It was surprising how much we really enjoyed the Crazy Horse Memorial. There was actually more to do and see here than at Mount Rushmore from a monument and museum perspective. Though no hiking trails at Crazy Horse.

We got back to Jewel Cave National Monument at about 2:45 P.M. With an hour to kill before our tour we did a short mostly unimpressive 1.4-mile round-trip hike to the original, sole opening to the cave. The entrance was very rough, and it was closed to the public, but scary to think that people actually went into this cave network through this entrance. We then went on the hour and twenty minute “Scenic Tour”.

On the tour we saw two types of calcite crystals known as nailhead spar and dogtooth spar, which are the “jewels” of Jewel Cave. We also saw boxwork, cave popcorn, flowstone, stalactites, stalagmites, draperies, and a long ribbon drapery called the cave bacon…which really did look just like a huge strip of bacon. Our ranger guide was a geologist with an awkward but good sense of humor. He was very knowledgeable. This was an excellent tour, and we preferred this to the Wind Cave tours.

After the tour it was around 5:30 P.M.  From here we drove the Needles Highway stretch of the truly great Custer State Park. This is a spectacular 14-mile scenic drive through forest and meadows surrounded by birch and aspen, and rugged, spire-like granite mountains. The road’s name comes from the needle-like granite formations that pierce the horizon along the highway. The stunning gray, spire rock formations tower right over the road.

A section called Needles Eye was the highlight. It is so-named because of one large spire that looks like a sewing needle with its eye clearly formed.  The granite spears jog out into the road creating almost a curved courtyard with people milling around right in the road. One of the several tight, one lane road tunnels is right here, and when we were there we saw a family of mountain goats coming through the tunnel toward us, as we were now out of our car admiring the massive granite needles. The goats came out of the tunnel and frolicked along the needles, coming in and out of sight, almost playing with the people.

We then continued on our drive, coming upon a couple more one-lane tunnels with openings about 9′ x 11’, several wicked hairpin turns, awesome views, and mountain goats.

We made a quick stop at the State Game Lodge in Custer Sate Park just to see the former “Summer White House” of Calvin Coolidge. This is a very nice, old fashioned but top-notch lodge. We tried to get a drink in the lounge or on the balcony, but there were no seats or tables open.  We just looked around.

Then we continued on. We drove part of Wildlife Loop and an unpaved spur road we found on the map (which, to our disappointment provided no wildlife viewing), then back to camp around 9:00 for dinner and beers by the fire and under the stars.

Off to bed.

Next: Badlands National Park and Sioux Falls