Cave Exhibits - Visitor Center - Wind Cave National Park

The lower level of the visitor center at Wind Cave National Park houses a museum containing samples of various cave formations found in Wind Cave. Journals and maps created by Alvin McDonald are also displayed along with the history of cave exploration, development, and protection.

Alvin McDonald was still a teenager when he arrived at the cave in 1890. He spent the next three plus years systematically exploring the first 8 to 10 miles of the cave before his death at age 20 due to typhoid. It would be another 70 years before additional exploration expanded the known length of the cave system from 10 miles to over 140 miles.

We visited the park in August 2017.

Part of the large lower exhibit room

Boxwork

Calcite Popcorn

Gypsum Flowers

Gypsum Needles

Calcite Ice

Branching Helictite

Frostwork

Thick Helictite

Soda Straw Stalactite

Fossilized Coral

Geode with Dogtooth Spar Interior

Boxwork sample for touching

How boxwork forms

Alvin McDonald systematically explored Wind Cave using a ball of string and a candle

McDonald's journal

Early cave tour

Men from the Civilian Conservation Corps built the concrete stairs and installed electric lights in the cave

Entry to Wind Cave National Park is free. Cave tours require a fee of $10 to $30 per adult depending on the tour. Prices are reduced for children and seniors. Tickets for the current day tours are sold at the visitor center on a first-come, first-served basis.

The park website is https://www.nps.gov/wica.

Visitor Center - Wind Cave National Park

Our August 2017 trip to the Dakotas continued with a visit to Wind Cave National Park near Hot Springs, South Dakota. Our first stop was the visitor center. To reach the visitor center from downtown Hot Springs at the intersection of US-18 and US-385 drive north on US-385 for 10.2 miles before turning left onto the road signed for the visitor center and cave tour. Drive 0.6 miles to reach the parking area for the visitor center. The parking area is ¼ mile long with the visitor center located near the middle of that distance, so it can be up to a 700 foot walk to the door.

The visitor center has all the usual elements including an information desk, museum exhibits, bookstore, restrooms and an auditorium. Another excellent park service production, Wind Cave, Two Worlds, is shown in the auditorium. The museum exhibits are displayed on two floors of the center with the above ground exhibits displayed on the main floor and the cave exhibits displayed on the lower level. In addition, the visitor center has a ticket desk where tickets to three regular tours and two specialty tours are sold daily on a first-come, first-served basis. Adult tour difficulty and prices for 2017 are as follows:

• Garden of Eden - easy - $10 (age 6 to 16 - $5, under 6 free)
• Natural Entrance Tour - moderate - $12 (age 6 to 16 - $6, under 6 free)
• Fairgrounds Tour - strenuous - $12 (age 6 to 16 - $6, under 6 free)
• Specialty - Candlelight - strenuous - $12 (age 8 to 16 - $6, under 8 not allowed)
• Specialty - Wild Cave - very strenuous - $30 (age 16 and up, under 16 not allowed)

Senior, Golden Age, or Access pass holders are admitted for ½ the adult price. Interagency Annual Passes do not provide a discount. All cave tours leave from the visitor center or elevator building and are ranger-led.

The entire headquarters, visitor center, elevator building, picnic area, and campground complex are fenced to keep large animals out of the area. This has the advantages of keeping wild animals wild and allowing the above ground portion of the tours to proceed unimpeded.

Visitor center

Central stairs

Tour information

Cave tour ticket sales

Exhibit in main hall

Connected caves?

Above ground park information

Information desk

Auditorium with seating for about 50

Bookstore clothing

Books

Calendars and maps

Artwork for sale

Cave history exhibits

Wildlife photography

Main floor exhibit room

Free-standing displays

Where prairie meets forest

Prairie dog exhibit

Bison exhibit

Elevator building from exhibit room

Stephen Mather plaque

Entrance to the picnic area

Picnic tables and parking

Entry to Wind Cave National Park is free. Cave tours require a fee of $10 to $30 per adult depending on the tour. Prices are reduced for children and seniors. Tickets for the current day tours are sold at the visitor center on a first-come, first-served basis.

The park website is https://www.nps.gov/wica.

Sunset at Ridgeline Trail - Theodore Roosevelt National Park

We chose to watch the final sunset of our first visit to Theodore Roosevelt National Park on the bench at the end of the Ridgeline Trail in the South Unit. To reach the trail from the visitor center in Medora, drive north on East River Road for 6.4 miles where the road becomes Scenic Loop Drive. Drive an additional 4.1 miles to a marked pullout on the right. The west-facing bench is just over 1/3 mile up the easy to moderate trail.

An entrance fee of $25 admits all the passengers of a single vehicle for seven days to Theodore Roosevelt National Park. Other entrance fee options include a Theodore Roosevelt National Park Annual Park Pass for $50, an Every Kid in a Park 4th Grade Pass for free and a variety of America the Beautiful - National Parks and Federal Recreational Lands Passes providing access to most national park, national forest, and BLM fee areas

• Annual Pass for $80
• Military Pass for free
• Lifetime Senior Pass for $80 or $20 annually for those age 62 and older
• Access Pass for free for visitors with a permanent disability

An entrance fee is not collected at the Painted Canyon Visitor Center.

The park website is https://www.nps.gov/thro.