Wind Cave and Badlands Nat’l Parks, SD – Sept 2021

I visited Wind Cave National Park south of Custer, SD.  The above ground portion of this park is mostly rolling grassland hills.  There are a few trails in the area, but I skipped this activity and went straight for the Cave tour.  I have been in several caves and caverns over the years.  Mostly I have seen caverns with stalagmites and stalactites.  This cave had a formation called Boxwork, made of Calcite, that is not found in many caves.  Wind Cave is the third longest in the United States, and seventh longest in the world.  Currently Wind Cave has 257 miles of mapped passageways.  2 miles more than it was a month ago.  This cave, like many others, is constantly being explored and miles added to the overall length.  I took the ‘Natural Entrance’ cave tour which is 1.25 hrs long and has about 450 stairs.  Luckily the stairs were all going down and there is an elevator to bring you back up (thank Goodness!).   This tour went to a depth of 225 feet down, however they have mapped down to 500 feet where there are underground lakes.  The deepest lake being 40 feet deep.  Scientists have found 10,000 organisms in these lakes not found anywhere else in the world.  The natural entrance to Wind Cave is very small and only a child would be able to fit through it.  However, it is called Wind Cave because there is always a wind either coming out of the entrance, or going into the entrance.  Why would it change directions?  The cave continually tries to equalize the barometric pressure inside to match the outside pressure.  This day the wind was blowing out of the cave.  Our Ranger Tour Guide said this means there is a weather front coming into the region and that this entrance to the cave was better at predicting weather than the weather app on her phone!  Sure enough there was a storm blowing in and it rained that night.  Since we couldn’t go in through the Natural Entrance, we went in through a larger man-made hole via an air lock of sorts.  I can’t really explain what it’s like to be in a cave with narrow passageways, then huge rooms that open up…  but the boxwork formations were really interesting and covered the ceilings (I’m afraid my pictures didn’t turn out too good due to how dark it was in there).  I found it completely fascinating.  The Ranger turned out the lights so we could see just how dark it was.  There is no light at all in the cave and it was strange not being able to see anything, even if you waved your hand in front of your face.   Even on the darkest night there is usually some light from stars or moon, but not in caves.  Kind of spooky!  I felt this cave was one of the best I’ve been in.  As we were leaving I heard a woman say she was a ‘Cave Virgin’!  She had no idea what to expect and was blown away by her first cave exploration.

I moved from the Custer area to Badlands National Park, about 100 miles away.  There is a dispersed (free) camping area called Nomad View Dispersed Camping just 1 mile from the park entrance (very handy).  This camping area is set all along a bluff (butte?) overlooking a badland landscape.  The road along the bluff is approx. 2 miles long and people can camp anywhere along the side they want.  I scored a wonderful view to the south and stayed for a week.  It is truly amazing how many great free campsites I’ve had with wonderful views.  Of course there are always the duds but there haven’t been a lot of those. Usually it’s the RV parks that I pay for that are the duds!

When I left Yellowstone, I was a little disappointed that I hadn’t seen any Bighorn sheep during that stay.  The afternoon that I pulled into my Badlands campsite, I had a female Bighorn sheep come visit my camp.  She and a few others turned up once in a while during my stay.  In addition, Badlands Natl Park has a LOT of Bighorn sheep and I saw them every time I was in the park.  My first day in Badlands was wonderful.  It was a cool day!  It started out cloudy then cleared mid morning.  Like many other people say, this area is other worldly!  Huge Buttes with grassland on top and eroded hillsides striped with tan and red soils.  Some areas had tall sharp spire like rock formations, others smooth and rolling.  Deep crumbly crevices where water runs down the hills, end at the valley floor far below.  One area of interest is called Yellow Mounds.  The hills here are smooth and rolling, and the dirt is yellow (more gold to my eye).  Some of these yellow mounds have red dirt on the top quarter of the hill.  They almost look like Candy Korn sitting in the desert.   My favorite area was close to the visitor center.  There were several trails in this area, one being the Fossil Trail.  This was a boardwalk (very short) with interpretive signs and models of fossils found in this area.  Across the street was the Castle Trail which headed out into the plains where you could get very close to the badlands formations.  It was definitely a nice change to get out of the car and walk a while. 

I went back to Badlands NP two days later.  It was cool and cloudier.  I took a different road that was gravel but a good road.  There was way less traffic and lots more Bighorn Sheep!  The formations were somewhat different along this road, and it dropped down to the valley floor beyond the park into farmlands.   I looped back around to the visitor center and back through the park on the main road.  I stopped to walk for awhile amongst the tall weathered hillsides.  The amount of different types of rocks in this area is amazing.  Even though you aren’t allowed to take rocks or fossils out of the park, it was a lot of fun searching for beautiful rocks – like beachcombing only in the desert!

The dispersed camping area was 7 miles south of the town of Wall, South Dakota.  If you haven’t heard of Wall Drug, it is quite an icon in this area.  It has been around for decades (since the 20s or 30s?).  Originally the draw to Wall Drug was free ice water and 5 cent coffee.  They still offer these two things today.  In addition to a drug store, there are all manner of souvenir shops.  The building is western cowboy style inside and out.  Animal heads were hanging on the walls along with cowboy paraphernalia.  There is even a small wayfarer’s Chapel in Wall Drug! Out back is the famous ‘Jackalope’ statue (a cross between a Jack Rabbit and an Antelope).  I don’t know how old I was when my family was on a vacation where I was first introduced to the rare and wild Jackalope.   I swear to this day that I saw a ‘jackalope’ in a field next to the road.  I was teased about that for years but I’m determined to find a real one and prove everyone wrong!  I’m sure they are real!!

I did spend part of a day in Rapid City, the largest in the area with about 75,000 people.  The downtown area was historical with shops.  But the two notable things for me were 1) the town square with a small stage and granite sculptures around the edges of a green area; and 2) the Art Alley Walk.  One block of an alley is dedicated to any kind of art someone wants to create (permit is required).  It was fascinating seeing murals big and small, graffiti, etc. all overlapping on the backs of buildings.  Every inch was painted. 

I was able to get an appointment in October in Washington state to have my slide diagnosed for repair.  Wanting to visit my sister in Boise before heading on to Washington, I needed to cut my time a few days short in South Dakota.  I said goodbye to the Badlands and headed West!