Wind Cave National Park

Over 600,000 people visit Wind Cave National Park in South Dakota every year.

Strong winds at the cave’s entrance gave the park its name. In fact, according to legend, wind blew the hat off one of the Bingham brothers who discovered the cave when he stood at the mouth of the cave.

135 miles of cave tunnels

Explorers have found over 135 miles of passages inside the cave, making Wind Cave one of the longest in the world.

Another unusual thing about the cave is boxwork, formations that look like honeycombs.

Cave Tours

Several different ranger-led cave tours allow guests to explore Wind Cave.

A two-hour candlelight tour takes visitors back in time while exploring by candlelight, but you must be at least eight to join this tour.

Summer Campfire Programs

Campfire programs occur nightly at Elk Mountain Campground amphitheater.

On Tuesdays and Fridays in July, prairie night hikes meet here and then travel to discover the prairie at night. Check the schedule for specific details.

Buffalo graze in the grasslands

Don’t imagine that all the wonders are below ground. There are over 400 bison (buffalo) in Wind Cave National Park. These large animals like to graze in the grasslands. The animals roam as they eat, so bison don’t stay in one place a long time.

Keep your distance from these dangerous animals because their behavior is unpredictable.

Prairie dog town

One of the prairie dog towns at the park is located 1.2 miles north of the visitor center. Blacktail prairie dogs live in prairie dog towns and look out for each other. They warn each other to hide when danger is near.

Don’t go near the prairie dogs and don’t walk on their towns because it tramples their food supply. But do enjoy watching for their heads to pop up out of the ground to see what you’re doing!

-Sandra Merville Hart

 

Sources:

Flynn, Sarah Wassner. National Geographic Kids: National Parks Guide U.S.A., National Geographic Society, 2012.

McHugh, Erin. National Parks: A Kid’s Guide to America’s Parks, Monuments, and Landmarks, Black Dog & Leventhal Publishers, Inc., 2012.

“Wind Cave,” National Park Service, 2016/01/06 http://www.nps.gov/wica/index.htm.