Day 19 – Wind Cave National Park, SD to Mt. Rushmore National Memorial, SD to Devils Tower National Monument, WY

Miles driven today: 195 Cumulative miles: 4249 We got up about 7:15am from the worst night of sleep we’ve had on the trip. Not only was it stupid cold (the thermometer said the low in the tent was 36 degrees), our tent site was also sloped. We slept with our heads uphill and ended up in a pile in the lower corner of the tent. Our sleeping bags zip together (even though they’re mummy bags), which is nice for body warmth, but it also means that I had to fight Daniel’s burrito move all night (you know, grab the blanket – or sleeping bag in this case – and roll over so you are wrapped like a burrito). I made breakfast for a change while Daniel packed up the sleeping bags and tent. We went to the Visitor Center for the 9:00am tour of Wind Cave. The tour lasted about an hour and a half. Our ranger was really good and is a caver herself (she has a Master’s in geology with a specialization in cave science). The tour group had about 25 to 30 people, which I think is a little too big to manage. Daniel and I were near the back of the group and got stuck behind possibly the most annoying and stupidest couple on the tour. Every fifteen feet, the woman would say “Now that’s cool” or “Isn’t that cool?” and then proceed to take a flash picture just a foot or two from my face. Her husband, who was in front of her, would say “Now look at that” as he touched whatever it was. He would also touch the wall with his hands on every step that he took if the wall was close enough. Anyone who has been on a cave tour knows the first and last things you are told is “DON’T TOUCH!!” It’s not just that the cave formations are fragile and could break, but also that the dirt and oils on your hands transfer easily from your hands into the rock and permanently stains and damages it. I understood this concept when I was five and went on my first cave tour (that I remember). Somehow this is lost on these two 40-something year old adults. I was just about to ask them if they were deaf or just stupid when we got to the next large room and stop on the tour. I took this opportunity to move way ahead of them in the group – I figure when that part of my personality (which I get from my dad) starts to come out, it is better to remove myself from the situation rather than cause trouble. Back to the tour. Wind Cave is currently the fourth longest cave in the world at 124 miles long (behind Mammoth Cave in Kentucky – 367 miles, Jewel Cave in South Dakota – 140 miles, and Optymistychna in Ukraine – 133 miles). New passages are being found in Wind Cave at a rate of 5 miles per year, so this rank could change. Wind Cave is famous for its boxwork, which is a calcite formation, formed when the limestone encompassed by the calcite (the calcite filled the cracks in the limestone) eroded away, leaving the calcite ‘boxes.’ After the tour, we spent some time at the exhibits in the Visitor Center, then drove north through the park and into Custer State Park. While there, we saw bison, wild asses, prairie dogs, turkeys, mule deer, and antelope. We continued north toward Mt. Rushmore on Alt-16. This was a nice off-the-beaten-path kind of drive. We went through three narrow, one-lane tunnels that had been blasted out of rock – two of which you could see Mt. Rushmore in the distance as you emerged. The road twisted and turned its way through a forest of Pine trees and we finally arrived at Mt. Rushmore National Memorial about 1:20pm, nearly two hours after we left the Wind Cave Visitor Center. We had lunch at the Memorial and then did the .6 mile Presidential Trail Loop that starts at Grand View Terrace, goes up close to the base of the mountain, by the sculptor’s studio (which was closed) and back to the Terrace and Visitor Center. We did get to see a mountain goat near the entrance before we left at 4:00pm. We made the hour drive to Jewel Cave and stayed there less than five minutes. Apparently they close at 5:30pm, so we missed the last tour of the day (the info I had printed out didn’t have tour times beyond Labor Day). Not a big deal – it just gives us another reason to come back. We continued west to Wyoming, where we literally saw hundreds of antelope. At one time, we saw a herd of about 50 in a field. The drive to Devils Tower National Monument took about two hours after leaving Jewel Cave. We were able to see the tower in the distance for a short time as we drove, then the hills blocked the view until we were about five miles away. Since the sun was going down, we drove around the tower from the entrance on the east side to the Visitor Center on the west side so we could see the tower with the evening sun shining on it. It only took about ten minutes after we got out of the car for the light to completely change and become too dark for photos. We drove the two miles back to the campground turn off and went to pick a campsite. Of the two loops of sites at Belle Fourche Campground, one of them was closed (for the season I’m assuming). That knocks out half the sites. On the open loop, two sites were blocked off for no apparent reason and three sites were designated as group sites. All of the other sites were full except for one. We went ahead and set up camp in the only site. (This campground also doesn’t allow campfires, so we’re still stuck with the two bundles of firewood that we bought at Great Sand Dunes and didn’t use there.) We made dinner about 8:30pm and went to the tent shortly thereafter. We played games in the tent for a while (we would have played at the picnic table, but the cold was setting in – it didn’t feel as cold as the previous night, but our thermometer battery died so we couldn’t check) and went to sleep around 11:00pm. Wildlife seen: (More variety and quantity today than any other day) bison, wild asses, prairie dogs, turkeys, antelope, mule deer, white tail deer, mountain goat, hawk, squirrels, chipmunks Miles hiked: ~2.0