September 11, 2021
JEWEL CAVE NATIONAL MONUMENT
11149 US-16 B-12, Custer, SD 57730
“Jewel Cave National Monument contains Jewel Cave, currently the third longest cave in the world, with 200.3 miles of mapped passageways. It is located approximately 13 miles west of the town of Custer in Black Hills of South Dakota. It became a national monument in 1908.” - Wikipedia
If you’ve seen my other posts about caves you know that I am not fond of them. I left Jewel Cave to one of my last days in the Black Hills thinking if I ran out of time I probably wouldn’t miss not seeing it. After my visit, I am happy that I went.
After parking I was met by a park ranger giving me the cave tour options available for the day. The cave’s elevator system was being renovated so there were two options: Modified Discovery Tour and the Historic Lantern Tour. I chose the Modified Discovery Tour, as taking a tour where I have to hold a light does not sound inviting to me.
Before embarking on the tour this warning was given: “This tour is not recommended for persons with heart or respiratory conditions, foot or lower joint problems, or who have been hospitalized recently.” Turns out this has nothing to do with the tour inside the cave, but with the 1/2 mile trail that descends 180 ft that must be walked to get to the cave entrance. And obviously, if you go down 180 ft to get to the tour, you must climb back up after the tour. But let’s not focus on that.
On this mondified tour, you enter through a service entrance, walk a paved path into a large room. Here the park ranger gives a brief history of the cave, points out some of the rock formations, and explains more about the continued exploration and finding new parts of the cave. The room had nice concrete floors and steel platforms to explore different areas of the room. We did not leave the room, which was explained before the tour. In all, we were in the cave for twenty minutes. The modified tour did pique my interest (not enough to take the lantern tour), but I would consider coming back sometime to take the full Discovery Tour, after the elevators are working.
The trail down to the tour entrance. The picture doesn't show how far down the trail descended.
The tour entered through a service entrance.
A large hole near the top of the room ceiling. I believe the ranger said there was a path behind the hole that some tours visit.
The stairs (which were not part of our tour) seem to descend to nowhere.
I always find different rock formation fascinaing. This picture doesn't really show how beautiful this really was.
At least this part of the cave had structures in place which made touring feel much safer.