Road to South Dakota: Jewel Cave National Monument and Custer State Park
August 18th
After the mine tour, we hit the road again towards South Dakota. We arrived at Jewel Cave, named for the sparkling calcite crystals that look like sparkling jewels. It is the second longest mapped cave in the world. We got there late in the day, and there was only one tour with space remaining, the introductory tour (the only access to the cave is by tour) so we signed on for it and took a walk around the visitor center. Then we took an elevator several hundred feet below ground into a large cavern where a ranger told us about the history of cave, how it was discovered by two men who felt a blast of air coming from a hole in the ground for which they filed a mining claim and the later exploration of the cave. Unfortunately, our tour was too short to get a real sense of the cave.
From the cave, we drove another 15 miles to Custer State Park where we were planning to camp for the next four nights. After getting set up, we had dinner and got to bed. We needed some rest for the busy days of sightseeing ahead of us.
Posted from Nashville, Tennessee
Tags: South Dakota
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