Dakotas Road Trip 2022: Wind Cave National Park

Jaclyn

Apr 7

Another must! As we have started traveling more with the kids, visiting national parks has been a big part of our family travel. I'd like to get to them all - that may not be realistic, but it's a goal. And when planning the Dakotas, I knew right away that we wanted to stop by Wind Cave. How often do you get to visit a park that's equally spectacular above and below ground?

If you're planning to go to Wind Cave, note that tickets to go into the cavern are timed, and they're first-come-first-served. In order to be in the first group down, we left our campsite right after breakfast and were at the visitor's center doors when they opened. We got tickets for the 8:00 a.m. tour - success!

(Dress warmly! It's cold in the cave!) The underground tour was fascinating. Wind Cave is one of the only places in the world where "boxwork" cave formations can be found - that's the honeycomb-like structure in the top right photo. And it has over 95% of the boxwork in the world. By contrast, the stalagmites and stalactites that I remember from childhood visits to Howe Caverns in upstate New York - don't appear at Wind Cave at all. Super interesting and cool. The kids were enthralled.

After the cave tour, we finished up the kids' Junior Ranger workbooks and they took the oath of office. No days off!

Wind Cave might be most famous for its underground wonders, but it's also gorgeous above ground - and well worth seeing. We asked a ranger for a hike recommendation - just something short, since we had other stops to make and were hoping to squeeze in a wildlife drive and try to find some bison. She pointed us to a small spur trail and, following her directions, we headed off into the park. The trail climbed up through serene forest and then came out of the woods at a fire tower with this amazing view.

(Lest you think that all of our hikes were perfect, we had a mid-hike tantrum to contend with, and it was not the kid you might have expected. They're all human. That's my hot take for today.)

Now - I know what you're thinking. What about that wildlife drive? Did you see bison?

Wind Cave is a fabulous park for spotting wildlife - in fact, that's why I really wanted to go. Sure, I expected the cave tour to be interesting (and it was) but here's the thing about Wind Cave: it's a relatively small park - only 44 square miles - and contains a disproportionately large number of animals, especially big mammals, for that area. So the odds of seeing something cool are quite good at Wind Cave - as we discovered on the drive in, when we spotted hundreds of prairie dogs. We stopped to ooh and ahh, because they're always so stinking cute, but we were after something bigger this time. And we found something bigger.

Our first big mammal sighting: a herd of pronghorn antelope! They were so cool - elegant and gorgeous. We stopped the car and stared out the open windows for a good long while, taking in the sight.

As cool as the pronghorn were, they weren't our ultimate wildlife sighting goal. So we kept going, scanning every hill for characteristic brown backs. And then FINALLY...

We found them! Our long-sought American bison herd!

I'll let the pictures speak for themselves. (Pardon any blurry shots - I was snapping away!)

I wish I had gotten some better pictures! Not sure what was going on with my cameras, but at least the camera between my ears was in proper working order. I'll never forget the sight of these amazing, majestic animals. And after striking out on bison in Theodore Roosevelt National Park, and not seeing any in Custer State Park either, it was beyond exciting to finally get the bison sighting we'd been hoping for all week.

So - a truly epic day at Wind Cave! Starting the day out in a completely unique underground landscape - one that looked very different from other caves I'd seen before - and then moving on to a hike with a beautiful view, and finally... the cherry on top... getting to see pronghorn antelope and bison at last. I think that's about as perfect as a day can get, right?

Next week, we continue our South Dakota adventure, visiting two very different monuments. Check in with me then!

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