You Really Have to Be There

We were up early and on the road with our sights on Jewel Cave National Monument. An early arrival was very important because we had stopped there the day before and they had sold out their tours.  Today we arrived just right and were able to grab four tickets on the Scenic Tour beginning at 9:30 AM.

Ladders provided our stability on these climbs.

Jewel Cave is the third largest known cave in the world with over 180 miles of mapped underground passages. The “jewels” are calcite crystals that line the cave walls sparkling when the light hits them.

The cave breaths and has winds blowing throughout its interior. These winds change with the barometric pressure of the weather above the ground.  Our hike took us about an hour and a half and covered only ½ mile of the cave.

The tour was very interesting; our park ranger guide was very informative. As you can see by the photos I learned that it is very hard to get photos of a cave as you hike through it. Caves have no light so the lights installed in the cave by man did little to give you good photos. Using a flash was allowed, but the flash only traveled so far and the camera photos do not show the size nor depth within the caves underground environment. Most photos below are of huge rooms in the cave. In other words, taking photos in a gray/white cave is probably going to provide poor photo images. Sorry!

Draperies form as water trickles over surfaces.

Dogtooth Spar on the cave walls.

Surveyor mark used in mapping the caves.

Crazy

View from the veranda at the complex. 

Our next day’s exploration took us to Deadwood and then on to the Crazy Horse Memorial. Deadwood turned out to be a bit of a bust, it is mostly saloons and gaming areas. We didn’t partake in either activity provided in these establishments so we ate lunch at Saloon #10 and then left to explore the Crazy Horse Memorial.

The Crazy Horse Memorial was very interesting and its history really interested us all.  We enjoyed reading about all that has taken place. The Native American museum was one of the best we have visited. Everyone wondered if the memorial would ever be finished. 

Crazy Horse's face in stone.

Two workers loading the crane.

1/34th scale model with the mountain in the distance.

Crane in action on the finger of Crazy Horse.

Mount Rushmore and More!

We are staying in Bluebell Campground for the next four nights. In that time we drove to as many tourist areas that we could. Here is a bit of a roundup of what we did.

Custer State Park – Our first morning we got up and drove the Wildlife Loop Road where we were able to see numerous Buffalo, White-tailed Deer, and Pronghorn (Antelope). This loop is about 18 miles. It was beautiful and we were able to see much of the area without too many sightseers competing for photos.

We took a connecting route over to another road called the Iron Mountain Road which is another curvy narrow road that winds 18 miles providing wonderful vistas that culminate with distant views of Mount Rushmore.

We toured Mount Rushmore and all the exhibits that explain about the national memorials creation and all its history.

While at this stop Linda was able to run about the parking lots, checking off state licenses plates from her license plate app. This always makes her a very happy camper!

Leaving Mt. Rushmore we followed the Needles Highway which lead us on a very curvy 14-mile drive to rock formation called the Needle’s Eye. This entire mountain area is made up of very cool granite rock formations. The one lane rock tunnels throughout the day’s drive were definitely a bit conversation piece. Each one was so narrow Barry’s new truck’s crash sensors were vibrating all the time.

Once we passed the Needle’s Eye, stopped at Sylvan Lake and then headed home where our dog Kobi awaited our arrival.