We drove about 45 minutes to get to Jewel Cave National Monument, which is smack-dab in the middle of nowhere, somewhere between Custer City and Wyoming. But when we got there, we discovered that the only way to see the cave is to sign up with a guide. Unfortunately, we’d have to wait three hours for the next available tour. With nowhere to go and no way to kill three hours, we scrapped the Jewel Cave idea and headed to Wind Cave National Park, about 30 minutes southeast.
There, we dove into Junior Ranger activities, and embarked on a 90-minute tour of the cave system, led by an ironically tall tour guide, Mike, a 6’4” Jim Henson lookalike, who likely will develop a permanent stoop as he makes a living navigating those narrow underground passageways. At exactly 4-feet-tall, Clare is perhaps the only person in our group who didn’t have to duck to avoid bonking her head on an low-hanging rock.
Wind Cave, we learned, is the fifth-longest cave in the world, with almost 120 miles of explored passageways -- although it sounds like it’ll soon be downgraded to sixth as explorers navigate some other cave in some other country and tack on measurable miles.
I had always imagined that for some reason a stiff breeze barrels through the cave, and that’s how it got its name. But, actually it was so-named for the wind that comes out of the natural opening -- a 14-inch hole in the ground -- due to differences in atmospheric pressure; the air inside the cave is actually very calm.
We got back to the campground around 5 p.m., and enjoyed just relaxing -- believe me, an unprecedented opportunity. This is our third big road trip, but the first one that doesn’t have us skipping from campsite to campsite, state to state, driving, driving, driving, rolling in later than expected and rushing to set up camp. Tonight, after the kids took off for the playground, Keith and I took our time making dinner and actually had a chance to sit down with a couple of beers. Heaven.
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