A good Day for Spelunking

I woke this morning a little before 7 am, looked out the window and it was dreary and raining. I checked the weather and rain was forecast all day with temps rising from the mid 30s to mid 40s. I showered, dressed and went down for breakfast. After breakfast I got all my things together and checked out of the hotel. I then headed toward Wind Cave National Park about 7:45 am to arrive around 8:15 am, which I did. Once I arrived I went to the Visitor Center and bought tickets for the Natural Entrance tour at 8:40 am and the Fairground tour at 11 am.

I milled around the center looking at the exhibits until it was time to go over the gathering area for the tour. The Natural Entrance tour enters the cave adjacent to the original opening to the cave which is where it gets it name from the sound the wind makes as it enters or exits a small 15 inch opening to the cave. The tour lasted a little over an hour and I returned to the Visitor Center to await the second tour. I went and got a snack and then went and viewed the park video. Afterwards I made my way to the elevator building where the Fairground tour started from. This tour explored the middle and upper levels of the cave and took almost two hours.

Wind Cave has three major formations throughout the cave, Boxwork, Popcorn and Frostwork. Boxwork was first discovered in Wind Cave and the cave accounts for 95% of the known Boxwork. Popcorn and Frostwork are the same calcite crystals but form differently depending on the evaporation rate of the wind in the cave. Popcorn looks like it sound and Frostwork forms spiky crystals due to faster evaporation of water in the formations.

Original Wind Cave Entrance where it was first explored

Boxwork Formations

Popcorn Formations

Frostwork Formations

After the second tour I went to the car to drive on to Wall, SD on the north side of The Badlands National Park, leaving around 1 pm. I asked Samantha to navigate us to Wall and she had me turn south out of the park instead of north. Looking at my map, I had an idea of where she was leading me. However, when she wanted me to turn on a country road that cut over to another highway which is where I needed to go, the road was a sandy, gravel road and I wasn’t going 8+ miles on it given the weather conditions. So, I asked her to take us through Hot Springs a few miles further down the highway since there was an intersection with the highway I needed to get to there. In Hot Springs she directed me down a couple of side streets, assuming it was a short cut to the route I needed. However, one of the streets she wanted be to turn on had no street sign and after trying to make adjustments to her “Recalculating” directions, wound up in a dead end. So I back tracked back to the original highway and made it to my route by my maps. After that she navigated me to Wall, SD just fine. The trip was rainy with temps in the mid 40s most of the way. About 30 miles from Wall the rain all but stopped and I made to Wall around 3 pm.

Rainy Drive to Wall, SD

Wall, SD is known as the home of the original Wall Drugstore. Along the highway were numerous signs touting the drugstore and encouraging travelers to visit it and the complex around it which included a Jackalope and animated T-Rex, restaurant, mining company, emporium, art gallery, etc. After I checked in at the Super 8 and relaxed a while, I headed over to the Wall Drugstore which was several blocks away. I walked around the complex for a little while and around 4:30 pm went to the Wall Café for an early dinner since I hadn’t had any lunch.

After dinner I went and gassed up the car for tomorrow’s excursions into The Badlands.

Signs for Wall Drug on the way to Wall, SD

Wall Drug Complex Downtown Wall

Some of the venues in the Wall Drug Complex

She doesn’t say much. I wonder if she can navigate like Samantha?

The forecast for tomorrow is for cool temps (50s) and 60% chance of showers/storms. Maybe by the afternoon it will start clearing since the forecast for Tuesday is sunshine and temps around 70. We’ll see how it goes. Hopefully I can do some hiking on Tuesday if the weather clears as forecast.

See you down the road!