July 24 – Jewel Cave fun, Center Lake Campground, Custer State Forest

The next day we got up leisurely and fought the flies as we had cereal and milk for breakfast and got ourselves ready for the rest of the Black Hills.

There are enough things to do in the Black Hills to keep white trash busy for a generation.   Alpine slides, fake Mystery Spots, motorcycle-wear, etc.

But there are also very interesting and historically and scientifically important sites to see. There are amazing caves, monuments and natural features.

Among these is Jewel Cave, one of many large caves in the Black Hills.  I hadn't learned about Jewel Cave until just before we left Lexington, and it was only on our “possible” list of places to go. As we left Devil’s Tower, heading generally toward our campground reservation in Custer State Park, Jewel Cave was on the way, so that’s where we headed.

There was a lot of construction on the way and the road was winding and narrow, but we finally reached the Cave and were surprised to learn that:

1. Cave tours are very limited – groups of 30 every 15 minutes or so.
2. We were there at 11:30 and the next available tour was at 2:30pm
3. The tour would start with an elevator ride down into the cave.

We signed up for the 2:30pm tour and Audrey and Danny signed up for the Junior Ranger workbook – this was now reaching saturation for Danny…despite the cool badges you get.

We trudged back to the camper and ate Mac N Cheese and rice and chicken in the 90 degree camper while construction equipment rumbled 10 feet away.  All in all, a kind of shitty tourist experience. But we were better off than less prepared touristas, waiting without food, hungry in the 90 degree heat.

But then the magic happened. We gathered some sweatshirts (the sign indicated the cave was 49 degrees year round) and we joined our tour group.

Down the elevator we went with our attractive, sarcastic Park Ranger/Tour Guide. She led us on a 1 ½ hour,  1 1/2 hour of some amazing cave features. The cave, it turns out, is 170 miles of documented passages and the end has yet to be found, making it the 3^rd largest cave IN THE WORLD.  

The tourist path is well-lit, paved in concrete and has many aluminum steps (600+) up and down through cave passages.

We had a great time. Especially cool was the moment she asked us to turn off all artificial lights (cell phones, etc.) and she turned off the cave lights. It was pitch black – seriously no light at all.  She said to wave your hand in front of your face. And there was an illusion you could see your hand. My mind was creating my hand in my visual cortex when it was not visible – I like that kind of science. Plus we saw various cave features all with food names: cave popcorn and cave bacon and the like.  The cave bacon caused us to buy bacon on our next shopping trip.

Back on the surface we were blasted with heat and humidity. Audrey and Danny got awesome Junior Ranger badges while everyone but me was able to fit through an 8 ½ inch high concrete tunnel that serves as a test to see if you are cut out for spelunking. I am not cut out for spelunking. And let me add the problem was not my actual girth but my mind telling me I’d be stuck – claustrophobia isn't just a kind of Romanian sausage.

CUSTER STATE PARK

We reached Custer State Park in the early evening realizing a bit late that there are no flush toilets – just latrines.  This was contrary to our policy of having flush toilets everywhere, but it was OK for a night. We also couldn't find wood, so I drove around the park and grabbed some scrap from brush piles.

Binh and I ate canned oysters and crackers and drank some cold some Bud Lime.  This was followed by some pretty good scary story telling around a campfire complete with marshmallows, chocolate and graham crackers.

In the late evening after everyone was asleep I pulled out the binoculars and showed Max the amazing depth of stars you can see in the night sky. We saw a satellite or maybe it was an alien and called it a day.