We woke early today to make it to the park in time for the early morning cave tours, before the crowds closed in. We took the Natural Entrance tour ($12), which started 10 minutes after we arrived. The “Natural Cave” entrance is not really an entrance as it is more of a small hole that only a small child could squeeze through.
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| Natural Entrance to Wind Cave |
When the cave was first opened up in early 1889 for tours by the McDonald family, they excavated an entrance into the cave that started from their log cabin. The young son, Alvin, was the first true explorer of the cave, which is now ranked as the third largest in the world (Mammoth Cave is number 1 and Jewel Cave is number 2). 148 miles of passages have been mapped so far. They estimate only 10% of the cave has been mapped so far. Young Alvin McDonald explored the first 8-10 miles of the cave and led tours into the cave by candle light until he passed away at age 19 in 1891. They still find remnants of the twine he used to find his way back out. In 1901, the US Government took over the land and the cave. In 1903 it was made a National Park. Much of the work to make the cave more accessible was accomplished by the CCC in the 1930s. The cave contains 95% of the Box Lattice formations in the world. The formations were caused by limestone cracking under great pressure, and Calcite formed in the cracks over time. Then slightly acidic water melted away the surrounding limestone over millions of years leaving the calcite box formations and the cave found today. After the tour we collected passport stamp #7 and toured the exhibits in the visitor center.
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| Box Lattice Formation |
Following the exhibits we hiked the Wind Cave Canyon Trail (approximately 4 miles) to stretch our legs. The terrain varied between prairie and pine forest. We did not see any wild life. We plan to come back and hike some of the other trails.
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