Keystone, South Dakota

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Another day another state. Lunch in Cody Wyoming, dinner in Keystone South Dakota!

Sunday we made the obligatory pilgrimage to Mount Rushmore. It is impressive but once you've gone to the main viewing area and taken your pictures (10 minutes) that's it. On our way out a random man directed us to nearby Custer State Park that you can drive through and at one of the tunnels actually get a picture of Mount Rushmore framed in the distance. At that point we decided to check out the park which also has a buffalo herd. Another great find. The buffalo here are vaccinated and culled so the herd remains at a constant number. The roundup is October 7th and you can actually watch. We also ran into a burro jam. The herd, mostly mothers and babies were just walking up to cars. Wildlife is around every corner we saw deer, pronghorn deer, and thousands of prairie dogs. As we were driving through I noticed Wind Cave National Park was also in the same area so we thought we'd take in another National Park. This is a park neither of us had ever heard of and it was fascinating. We were just in time to take an hour and half tour through part of the cave led by a ranger who had been there 15 years. The tour starts at one of the natural opening, about 18 inches wide! We then entered by a revolving door with an air lock and descended into the cave which included a total of 300 stairs. You can stand up on this particular tour although you do have to watch your head at several points there are other tours where you actually crawl through tunnels led by a ranger. We descended to about 220 feet. We learned that the area had been declared a National Park back in 1903 and it was the first National Park to protect a cave. They have explored 121 miles of the cave and have descended to about 638 feet where they found water. Much of the cave is still unexplored and what makes it even more unbelievable is that it is all within one square mile of surface area. The ranger who was our guide has done some of the mapping of the cave and was very knowledgeable. You might be thinking 300 steps down means 300 steps up but an elevator is at the end of this tour. If you're ever in this area of South Dakota you must see this cave, skip Mount Rushmore if you must. The Ranger that led our tour gave us good advice about getting to the Badlands our next stop. How much can you fit into one day?!!

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