Day 12 - Mt. Rushmore

Greetings from Custer, SD! Ryan and I woke up today at the Holiday Inn Express in Custer South Dakota and had the best deluxe continental breakfast that we ever had. They had biscuits, eggs, sausage, and the normal continential muffins, begals and cerial. It was great! Then we headed off to Jewel Cave for our Lantern Tour. Good thing I pre-ordered tickets two days before because when we got there the earlier tour we could have taken would have been at like 3:45 pm. So we picked up our tickets and headed down the road another mile or two to where our tour started. Once there I decided to go to the bathroom before we entered the cave and it was pretty much like going into an outhouse (see pictures). I should have just gone to the bathroom behind a tree. Also, there was this cabin where we were supposed to meet the tour guide. For those of you that watch LOST, the house totally looked like Jacobs cabin. Haha. There was no cell phone service for several miles. It was kinda nice being out in the middle of the wilderness.

Everyone arrive for the tour and the park ranger came over to start the tour. The cool thing about the tour guide was the he played a character and acted like he was from 1930. He talked about the CCC and how they built most of the steps in the cave and about how the great Depression was the best thing that ever happened for the Park Services because it put people to work making roads and trails. Then we all were issued our old fashioned flame lanterns (just like the ones they used to originally explore the cave) and headed down the path to the cave. Once down there we found out that the Park Ranger had to lock us in the cave so that no vandals or passing travelers walked into the cave while we were on the tour. That was a little weird, but we weren’t turning back at this point. So, we headed into the cave and accended down 200ft along these very narrow wooden steps. There were also very small passage ways and Ryan kept almost bumping his head even when he was hunched over.

So the reason Jewel cave got its name was because when two brothers from Canada initially discovered the cave they thought that they had found Jewels because light kept reflecting off of the walls. They thought they found diamonds or something and struck it rich. It turns out it was just calcium deposites and non precious rocks. During the tour we were also told that the cave was first explored it was thought to be quite small. Further exploration determine that the cave is the second largest cave in the world at 146 miles long (second to Mammoth Cave in Kentucky 360 miles). There are some whom believe that Jewel cave stretches all the way to Wind Cave which is in Custer National Park over 40 miles away. The Ranger said that they are still exploring the cave and new caves and passages are found daily. Also, only 2 percent of the cave has currently been explored. If Jewel Cave and Wind Cave are in fact the same cave it would make this cave the largest in the world. Now the coolest thing that we did on the whole tour was when we walked into a giant cavern and turned all of our lanterns off. This was the first time in our lives that we were in complete darkness. It was pretty eerie, but an experience at the same time!

After Jewel Cave Ryan and I traveled back into Custer and had lunch at a pavilion in a Park. We had to eat here because it was raining and we could not sit outside (we bought cold cuts for lunch). Since it was raining we decided to head over to Custer National Park and drive around. When we got to the park the rain stopped. The scenary in Custer National Park was just beautiful (see pictures). Ryan and I were also able to get up close and personal with Buffalo, Elk, Jackasses and some Deer (no dad, we did not hit any with your car). Ryan and I even did some off roading (down some dirt trails). This enable us to get closer to the animals and boy was it cool. We also used our fancy binoculars to check out all of the animals. For anyone traveling through South Dakota, I would definitely recommend visiting this beautiful place.

After Custer Nation Park Ryan and I headed through the tunnels to Mt. Rushmore. The ride there was really beautiful as well (the whole area is). However, once we got to Mt. Rushmore it was a mob scene with people trying to get a place to sit to watch the fireworks. It was so crowded we could not even get into the monument. Better yet, I was really disappointed with the monument. I thought it would be more defined and larger than it was. Ryan and I literally got out took a photo and then just kept driving. To get a good vantage point for the fireworks Ryan and I decided to go up to this scenic lookout and see them from there. When we got there we cooked dinner on our grill (hotdogs) and made some friends. We met this guy Bo from Iowa who was there visiting his uncle. We also met some folks from Mitchell, SD. Let me remind you that Mitchell, SD is home of the Corn Palace. I had a nice conversation about it with this guy and he was like “you mean the giant bird feeder”. Apparently, Mitchell South Dakota is where they make all the boxes for pop-tarts and Eggo Waffles (that’s a nice nugget of info). Unfortunately, about an hour before the fireworks started some fog rolled in and we were unable to see anything. Once we realized it was pointless, Ryan and I decided just to head back to our hotel in Rapid City. For anyone thinking about traveling to Mt. Rushmore for the 4th of July I would totally advise against it. Hopefully, we can catch some fireworks tomorrow as we make our way to Yellowstone NP. Goodnight!