Pullin' Chocks

Jewel Cave National Monument, Custer, South Dakota

We finally took a trip to a local cave.  I have been wanting to do this since we got here.  I had been to the Mammoth Caves in Eastern Kentucky before and really enjoyed that experience so wanted to repeat the fun.  There are a bunch of caves in the Black Hills area so we weren't sure which one to visit.  There are too many to visit all of them and many charge a substantial admission price.  And many of those are really not worth the price of admission so we wanted to choose wisely.  We took Bruce and Brenda's advice from their previous visit and went with Jewel Cave.  It was an outstanding recommendation.  I must say it was every bit as good as the Mammoth Cave experience if not better and that is saying something.

Two brothers discovered the only natural opening to the cave around 1900 while horseback riding.  Then President Teddy Roosevelt declared Jewel Cave a National Monument about 8 years later after the brothers determined it was not a gold mine.  The visitors center and moderns paths and walk ways were constructed over 6 years in the late 1960's and early 1970's

Jewel Cave National Monument Visitor's Center

Notice the small box on the ground under the pavilion roof in the above photo.  More about that later..

 Gari at the trail heads outside the Visitor's Center.

 Jewel Cave

Our Park Ranger Guide Melissa providing the history, geology and rules of the cave.  The steel doors behind her protect the elevator shaft and two elevators that are the second of only three known openings to the cave system.  The day we were there Melissa announced that two new large rooms were just discovered the previous day.  This increased the known distance of cave to ~170 miles.  That's a lot of cave!

Down we went on aluminum stairs.

The first platform is about 250 feet below the surface.  Pictures don't really capture the full effect you get when you are in there, but it gives an idea of what's down there.

Walkways past the abundant calcite crystals in the cave.  The tour was 90 minutes so I estimate that we walked around 1 mile underground which included over 700 steps, some up some down.

 Cautious concern at 450 feet below the surface...

 Small stalagtites

Cave Bacon, see the strip?

"The Box"

At the entrance to the Visitor's Center is a concrete box that represents a typical opening from one part of the cave system to another.  The box acts as a test jig simulating an opening one must crawl through in order to explore the cave.  Apparently this opening is not one of the smallest...

Of course I had to try this...  One arm up and one arm back was the advice given by the Ranger that had explored remote areas of the cave.

 OK this is frightening, my chest was compressed as I piulled myself through.  I can't imagine how horrible it would be to try this in a cave where the passage is longer than two feet!  Not for me I assure you!

Phew!  I think I've got it made now!

The End!