In 1903 Wind Cave became the first cave worldwide to be designated a national park. Wind Cave is also the 4th longest cave in the world and is contains 95% of the known "boxwork" formations, a unique honeycomb type formation.
Boxwork is found in the middle and lower levels of Wind Cave.
The park offers five different tours, including a candlelight tour. We decided to take the 1.25 mile Natural Entrance Cave Tour. The tour began with a walk to the natural entrance where we could feel the wind either leaving or entering the cave (depending on barometric pressure). The "wind hole" is where the cavern got its name. We then proceeded to the man-made entrance of the cave.
There are a lot of steps on the tour, but most are headed down.
Shortly the trail descended a long stairway. There are a total of 300 steps on the tour with very few going up. We walked though some really narrow places and several times the top of the cave was low enough we had to duck to get through. One larger guy in our party had some close encounters with the cave walls.
This is NOT the larger guy in our party - just a happy biker enjoying the cave.
We saw a lot of the unique boxwork formations throughout the tour. The formations are more unique but less colorful than the formations in many of the caverns we have toured.
Boxwork
Another unique area of the cave was Snowball Alley. This area's ceiling was covered with small formations that looked similar to snow.
Ceiling in Snowball Alley
The tour took us deep into the cave. We viewed big open rooms as well as the tight walkways. The guide led us the innermost area for that particular tour and had us sit down. After providing us with some history and geological information he turned off the lights (after warning us not to move and told us what he was doing - don't want any surprises when you are hundreds of feet below the surface.). The darkness is amazing! It is difficult to explain that something can be darker than night - darker than when I close my eyes. It was a very eerie sensation.
An old exploratory hole from above
The tour was moderate to strenuous. There was a lot of up and down on the trail. It was a good think that at the end of the tour we rode an elevator back up to the visitor center. It was an educational and fun tour. I am glad we took the time to visit Wind Cave National Park.
If you are heading up to South Dakota make plans to tour Wind Cave. You will be glad you did.
Ride carefully and prayerfully!
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