It is easy to fill your days with adventure and wonder in Custer State Park, but when you feel like you know the park well enough, venture out.
West of the park is Jewel Cave National Monument and I am interested in spending some time wandering underground where it is cool and dark. I arrive and am told that the next available tour leaves in 2 hours – it’s a popular spot. Thankfully, there is a hike above the cave, around and through Hell’s Canyon. The hike ends with an uphill walk; by the end, I’m ready to dip underground and into the chill.
Jewel Cave is the 6th longest cave system in the world, and the experts estimate that only about 10% of the cave has been mapped. We meander up and down the stairs and more than comments about the cave, I hear comments about the stairs…the amount of them.
Just south of Custer SP is Wind Cave National Park, also famous for boxwork rock formation. I don’t know much about the formation, but I like how the ranger describes it. This is my butchered version of what I recall: We’re standing on what used to once be the ocean floor. Over thousands of years, shellfish died, their bodies turning into limestone. Cracks in the limestone began to fill with mineral calcite. Now imagine the limestone is like a sugar brick and the calcite is the mortar, clogging up the holes. Over time, the limestone erodes, like sugar dissolves, leaving only the mortar – the calcite. It’s shapes are spectacular – they look like spider webs, like diamonds, like mazes, like honeycomb.
The Park Ranger takes us on a walk through the cave and I’m grateful that she doesn’t do too much talking. She lets us wander along the trail, occasionally saying, “Low spot,” causing a whisper to trickle along the tour until it eventually fades as the last tourist ducks his head to avoid a bump.
Each cave tour I’ve been on has a ‘lights-out’ portion and if I’m being honest, this is the best part of the tour and one of the main reasons I go. I love the darkness, the gasps followed by total silence as people wave their hands in front of their faces trying to see them. Some people laugh. Far off we hear water plop into a pool.
Aside from hiking, making veggie chilli, swimming, exploring caves and avoiding hail, I visit Hill City, Keystone, Custer and other towns that dot the circumference of the park. I get good coffee, perch by a window, and watch – a perfect feast for the eyes.
