Check out the seventh longest cave in the world!
Have you ever been to a place that has totally blown you away? For me, Wind Cave National Park is one of those places. It’s an unassuming small national park located south of South Dakota’s Custer State Park, (also amazing) where the endless prairie meets the Black Hills. I went for the cave tour and was amazed at the other natural beauty of the park. It was so unexpected.
Wind Cave National Park is named for Wind Cave, a breezy natural cave that air moves in and out of when the atmospheric pressure changes. It was found by a couple of ranchers when one of the guys’ hat flew off by the entrance. Of course, the local native tribes have known about the cave for far longer than that. The cave plays an important role in the Lakota creation story. It is where they emerged into the world.
Jana Irving The natural entrance of Wind Cave. Very, very tiny.
Theodore Roosevelt named Wind Cave a national park way back in 1903. It was the seventh national park in the country. Wind Cave was also the first cave in the world to be protected. It is currently the seventh longest cave in the world with 154.2 miles of passageways mapped out, and contains 95% of boxwork, a very unique cave formation which I will explain, sort of, later.
Wind Cave was created by acidic water eating away at the soft limestone and by uplift of the limestone itself. The acidic water probably didn’t flow through the cave like a river. It just sat in the small passageways previously created, eating away at the limestone. I am no geologist, so it’s hard to explain. Basically, the cave system is a serious of small passageways. There aren’t huge rooms like some other caves, just cramped passages. Many of these passageways follow old cracks in the limestone that were eaten away. (Read more about it here.)
Jana Irving Limestone walls, separated by a gap, creating a passage.
Now to try to explain boxwork. This honeycomb-shaped feature is created by minerals settling in cracks. The mineral settling in the cracks is harder than the surrounding limestone. When the limestone erodes away, it leaves behind the harder mineral. Which, in turn, creates a honeycomb like structure. That’s the best I can do because that’s what I remember of how it was explained to me. (Read more about it here.)
Jana Irving Boxwork on the ceiling of the first room the tour stops in. Wind Cave is unique regarding its boxwork, mostly because 95% of the known boxwork in the world is found just in this cave system.
Jana Irving More boxwork in the same area. It extends across the ceiling and down along the walls of the passage.
Jana Irving There are some larger rooms in the cave. However, they always seem to have a low ceiling, which often has boxwork on it.
Jana Irving There is a little layer of boxwork on the walls near the ceiling. Rocks are weird.
Jana Irving Another tall passageway between two limestone walls.
Jana Irving The cave wall near the tops looks like it got sprayed by silly string.
Jana Irving Layers of boxwork.
Jana Irving Tall cracks are all over the cave system.
Jana Irving Weird ceiling.
Jana Irving Little windows.
Jana Irving Another vertical passageway.
Jana Irving Another weird ceiling.
Jana Irving More wall boxwork.
Jana Irving Very weird formations here.
Jana Irving I just think this looks cool.
Jana Irving Well, that doesn’t look like a creepy passageway at all.
Jana Irving Very honeycomb-like boxwork.
Jana Irving Side view.
Jana Irving I don’t know if the formation in the top right corner is boxwork or something else. It’s super cool looking, though.
Jana Irving A little creepy.
Jana Irving Very cool looking.
Jana Irving A lot going on here.
Jana Irving Last room on the Natural Entrance Tour.
Jana Irving A bunch of little rooms radiate off the circular room.
Jana Irving All and all, it’s a pretty cool cave.
Wind Cave National Park feels like two national parks in one. So, it feels I can only do this park justice if I split my post on Wind Cave into two parts. In the next post, I will be exploring the fantastic above-ground portion of Wind Cave.
Check out my next update where I will be exploring the above ground portion of Wind Cave!
or
Start at the beginning of this northwest Midwest road trip!
