Jewel Cave National Monument

Visited: June 2013

Nearby town: Custer, SD

In the Black Hills of southwestern South Dakota lie two large cave systems. Wind Cave (which has the designation of National Park) and Jewel Cave National Monument. Why Wind got the Park designation and Jewel Cave never did...who knows? Anyway, Jewel Cave became a national monument by act of Pres. Theodore Roosevelt in 1908. Jewel Cave is the third longest cave in the world, nearly 193 miles has been mapped. 

The cave was discovered by Frank and Albert Michaud in 1900, when they felt cold air rushing out of a hole in the canyon. The hole was much too small for a human to enter, so they enlarged the hole with dynamite, creating the "natural" entrance to the cave. The section the Michauds first entered was filled with calcite crystals, and they named it Jewel Cave.

Before you go down into the cave, you can enjoy some hiking trails on the surface, or just take in the lovely views.

The cave offers four tours. (1) Discovery Talk: this is a very short, easy 20 minute tour. You take the elevator down, explore one cave room, and then back up. (2) Scenic Tour: the most popular, 0.5 mile tour, take elevator both ways and you visit the lowest known section of the cave. (3) Wild Caving Tour: very strenuous tour for spelunkers, and (4) Historic Tour: tour the cave by lantern. 

The Wild Caving Tour and Historic Tour are only offered during the summer. The Discovery Talk and Scenic Tour are only offered on the weekends during the winter, every day in the summer. We took the Scenic Tour, you can buy tickets the day of (as long as you arrive early enough at the Visitor Center, most tours fill up in summer by noon), you can buy tickets in advance up to 90 days.

We did the Scenic Tour. It's a very pleasant hike, not too long, not too many steps. You'll get to see lots of formations, flowstone, calcite crystals, and "cave bacon."

the lowest spot in the cave

some cave bacon

Jewel Cave is a great stop for those visiting Mt. Rushmore/Black Hills region, and is well worth a visit. I'd say if you only have time to visit one cave in the area (between Jewel and Wind) I honestly have to say that Jewel Cave is the better tour. Wind Cave is dry and doesn't have the dramatic cave formations like Jewel does. I've been to Wind Cave years ago before I met Tara (so we haven't checked it off the official completion list yet), so we'll have to return to the region to visit Wind Cave. We would have visited it back in 2013 if we had the goal in place. Oh well, the Black Hills is always a fun time. For more info on Jewel Cave, go here: https://www.nps.gov/jeca/index.htm