Wind Cave and Wildlife

Today we visited Wind Cave National Park, the first national park to preserve a cave system. The cave is unique because it contains 95% of the world's boxwork, an unusual calcite formation.




















We went on the two-hour Natural Entrance Tour, which includes 350 steps (mostly down). Our tour guide was ranger April. This is her third season here. She told us about doing some caving on her day off (16 hours crawling through caves). She found a wonderful room full of frostwork, which looks like icy crystals. She realized that she was the first human being to have seen this room. Much of Wind Cave remains unexplored.

After the tour we watched the park video, which emphasizes that Wind Cave has both an above-ground world and an underground world, both of which the Park Service is dedicated to preserving.

After looking through the exhibits, we picnicked near the Visitor Center and then headed out to drive part of the Custer State Park Wildlife Loop. We saw bison and pronghorns and prairie dogs.

We did come upon one unusual "animal jam"--a group of begging burros. They are not native to the Black Hills, but were introduced to carry tourists up Harney Peak.

We also stopped to hike a short loop trail along the Rankin Ridge to the fire tower. Along the way we were warned of rattlesnakes, but we actually saw only least chipmunks playing in the rocks. The panoramic view of the surrounding ponderosa pine forest and short-grass prairie was impressive. We got more understanding of the role of fire in limiting the spread of the forest into the prairie. One of the reasons this is important is that trees require more water than grasses, so forests tend to deplete local streams--not to mention that it deprives many prairie animals of habitat.

Fire also thins dog-hair thickets (small, closely spaced pine trees) and makes room for forbs (broad leaf plants), the preferred diet of many prairie dwellers, like prairie dogs. (See how travel enriches your vocabulary!)

We stopped to get diesel and some groceries, so we were really late getting home. Another long day of sightseeing--we need some time off soon.