Thursday, June 10, 2011
We left the Custer/Mt. Rushmore KOA enroute to Jewel Cave National Monument near Custer. We arrived at the VC about 9:30. We decided to take the “Discovery Tour” of the cave which is the shortest and least strenuous tour. (The “Scenic” tour involved more than 700 steps!) The next available tour for us was at 11:35. We got the tickets and since there was plenty of time, we headed to the VC passport book stamping station to get that taken care of. We took in everything in the VC and sat in the sun on the patio. At least one of us (Barney) had time for a short nap.
The tour took us down in an elevator to about 250 feet below the surface, into a room that was roughly 50’ x 50’ with a 30’ ceiling. The tour only lasted about 20 to 30 minutes, and the ranger told us stories about the cave system and its early explorers. The cave system is over 150 miles of explored passages and the exploration continues.
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| Athos, Barney, Betty and Wilma in the cave |
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| Athos with Betty and Wilma |
From there we went to Wind Cave National Park with a stop enroute at the Flintstone DriveIn in Bedrock. It was like old home week!
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| Here we are in front of our likenesses |
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| The rolling caves by the sign |
We went to the VC at Wind Cave and did the appropriate passport book stamping. We did not take a cave tour there. After all, it’s just another hole in the ground that is about 130 miles long. This one has about a one square mile footprint to put all those miles in and the VC sits pretty much on top of it.
Heading off to Mt. Rushmore, we stopped along the road to photograph the Crazy Horse sculpture. In its current state only the head is done and a portion of his extended arm can be identified.
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| Crazy Horse - A work in process |
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| Close up of the mountain |
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| Barney and Betty, Wilma and Fred in front of Mt. Rushmore |
We also stopped at Horse Thief Lake Forest Service campground, selected a site, left the Flintstone-mobile, and took the Rubble-mobile to visit the faces on the mountain. Things at the complex had changed somewhat since our last visit. We took lots of photos and visited the museum. It was still very impressive.
We got the passport books stamped. Betty asked the ranger about the anniversary stamp and he said he wasn’t aware of a 25th anniversary stamp. After a few veiled threats, he went into the office to ask about it. He returned shortly, sheepishly, with the stamp and told Betty he was unaware of its existence before she asked. If the anniversary stamp isn’t out, asking will usually produce one.
The rolling caves are parked at the Horse Thief Lake campground for the night, and all is right with the world.
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