9 Apr 2022
Our only plan for today was a visit to Wind Cave, as we had to buy our tickets ahead of time, but our tour wasn’t until the afternoon. However, I noticed our ticket from Mount Rushmore said it was valid for re-entry for a year, so we figured we’d head out to the monument early so I could get the good pictures I missed yesterday.
Success!
We hiked the little trail along the base of the monument again
Washington:
I appreciate the lapel details.
Jefferson:
Roosevelt:
Poor guy is kinda squished in there.
Lincoln:
I like the little rocky overhang/toupee 🙂
Us!
Farewell, gentlemen!
We drove the hour or so to Wind Cave:
Grabbed some lunch in the car:
and still had some time to kill before our tour, so we wandered around the Visitor’s Center, where. I found this box demonstrating the small spaces spelunkers need to squeeze through:
I fit!
Wind Cave is an incredibly dense cave system- over 167 miles of cave have been discovered/mapped, but all the caverns fit within about one square mile area!
I found a cave-mapping tag!
It’s not a “pretty” cave, with giant caverns or sparkly formations:
but it is home to 95% of the world’s boxwork formations:
(it kinda looks like stacks of wet cardboard, but up-close it’s got some color and sparkle)
It also has a decent collection of frostwork:
It looks kinda crystallized:
(really should have brought a camera with flash!)
Dogtooth spar:
A layer of slate:
Our guide, Jerry, was awesome- he struck a great balance between telling us about the cave while still keeping things moving and interesting.
Farewell cave! Hello buffalos!
(I didn’t notice that prairie dog in the foreground until I loaded this picture up on my computer)
A coyote!!
Totally didn’t expect to see one of these guys out and about during the day!
I wanted to find some close-up buffalo (or, close-up with my zoom lens), so we took this scenic route through Custer State Park on our way back home.
A buffalo!
and another!
But most of the buffalos were pointing away from me 🙁
Matt appreciated this sign:
Things Matt did not appreciate- this hike I neglected to warn him about:
It was short- maybe a mile, but uphill the whole way out (though downhill the whole way back!) and crazy windy, but I wanted to climb that tower!
…it was closed…
Bummer! But at least I got a cute picture of us!
Pronghorns!!!
a horned pronghorn:
twins?
Closer buffalo pack:
A close-up buffalo!
and another!
Oh, deer!
A lounging buffalo!
and another!
Our path home took us through Iron Mountain, which has a series of tunnels that you can see Mount Rushmore through!
I like the “zoom out” function on my phone!
We had this road pretty much to ourselves until this second tunnel, when a zoom little car flew up behind us and rode our tail 🙁
We visited Mount Rushmore in high school, and I’m pretty sure this was the tunnel our bus scraped its way through- I was hoping to get a picture of the exit to compare, but the tailgater put the kibosh on that 🙁
Last tunnel:
For dinner, I wanted to find Matt some birthday beer, and heard good things about Independent Ale House, so here’s us with some beers!
Yes, I drank a beer (Left Hand’s Nitro Milk Stout):
Proof I finished it:
They have fun pizzas too!
Matt’s is on top- an Indy BLT with lettuce, tomatoes (which I ate), banana peppers (which I tried and burnt my mouth on) and Sriracha Mayo.
Mine (on the bottom) is mashed potatoes! (I forgot to order it without bacon, but it was still tasty!)
Happy anniversary, us!