Jun 2, 2011 - Ellsworth AFB - Jewel Cave National Monument

Decided to finish what we had started out to do after Wind Cave NP before our rude interruption of the rock hitting the windshield creating a chip. So, off we headed to visit Jewel Cave National Monument (NM). The weather’s changed to beautiful days loaded with sunshine and slight breezes – a very nice, refreshing change from last week’s weather! As we headed towards Jewel Cave NM we came upon some “cowboys and gals” herding cattle by the side of the road. A woman in an ATV was heading the way (talk about mixing past and present day...

Aug 22, 2010 - Jewel Cave Nat'l Monument

I am going to cheat again – I am tired so I am copying from the national park websites. This is what is said about Jewel cave: “The earliest written account of Jewel Cave is a mining claim filed by Frank and Albert Michaud in 1900. The brothers described the entrance as a hole that was too small for human entry, with a blast of cold air coming out. After subsequent enlargement with dynamite, they entered the cave with Charles Bush, a friend of the family, discovering crawlways and low-ceilinged rooms coated with beautiful calcite crystals...

Aug 15, 2010 - Jewel Cave S.D.

Today we visited Jewel Cave. We took a 3/4 mile ranger led tour for about 2 hours. You take an elevator 22 stories down them walk up and down about 800 steps on a aluminum catwalk. It is the second largest cave in the world, 151 miles has been explored

Jul 9, 2010 - Jewel Cave

Jewel Cave National Monument, at 151 miles, is the second longest cave in the world. The longest cave is Mammoth Cave in Kentucky. Jewel Cave gets its name from the abundance of calcite crystals that completely cover the cave walls. Calcite is the same mineral that they use in making soda. The calcite is also the mineral that eats away and dissolves all the limestone to make the cave. The on going joke that all the tour guides say is that the calcite makes Jewel Cave "Nature's Cavity". The cave tour was nice. Our tour guide, a college girl,...

Aug 15, 2009 - Jewel Cave National Monument

Our main goal today is to see Jewel Cave National Monument. Weather was nice in the morning but cloudy. We may get rain later this evening. We would like to go to the lighting ceremony at Mount Rushmore, but it will depend on the weather. It gets cold here in the evening - upper 40's to lower 50's. When we arrived at the park a little after 10 a.m., there were lots of cars in the parking lot. There are four or five different tours offering various lengths of time and walking distances. The ranger said the intermediate tour was booked up and...

Jul 11, 2009 - Jewel Cave National Monument

Today’s trip was to Jewel Cave National Monument. It’s the 2nd largest cave system in the world and a lot different that Wind Cave. This cave has a lot more volume than Wind Cave. The tour went through areas with large rooms and some or the typical stalactite and stalagmite formations you see in other caves plus other types of formations like “bacon” and flow stones that I’ve never seen before. Again I’ll let the pictures do the talking.

Jul 7, 2009 - Jewel Cave NM

I was headed south after Crazy Horse, so I went to Custer and did laundry and had lunch at the Purple Pie shop. yummy! Jewel Cave is 14 miles east of there so I decided to make a big loop back to Beulah and see this cave, since I'm here. This cave is complicated like Wind Cave and is currently the 2nd largest cave in the world. Again, they estimate they've only found about 5-10% of the cave and they are continuing to discover paths. To get from the main cave where we go to the "new" area, one has to go into a long section that is only 24"...

Sep 1, 2007 - Jewel Cave

On Labor Day, we visited the nearby Jewel Cave National Monument. The displays in the visitors Center indicated that this would be a more picturesque cave then Wind Cave but the hike would be more strenuous. Jo decided that she had done enough caving with the trip to Wind Cave, so chose to check out the town of Custer more thoroughly while David went through the cave tour. As advertised, Jewel Cave had more attractive formations then Wind Cave, but again nothing like the colorful mineral formations in Luray Cavern. Perhaps one explanation...