Wind Cave

Touring Wind Cave was such a blast! On our way back home we stopped by Wind Cave. It was so much fun.
Cody loved it because the Park Ranger let him be the first one down in the cave and was in charge of leading everyone. Cody loved being the leader.

At first Kylee was jealous of Cody but then the Ranger gave her a job. He would have her stop and tell the rest of the people in the group what they were looking at. Then at a stop she would catch up and do it again. Here she is telling us we are looking at Popcorn Formation made by water. Wind Cave is a drier cave so you do not get the big stalagmites, but just little popcorn. Or this is boxwork. Wind Cave has 95% of all the boxwork in the world. Everyone in the tour kept telling Kylee she was a natural!

No pictures could really capture the beauty of it all.

This was so neat. There are several different tours that you can go on. We went on the Natural Entrance one. Our guide grew up at Wind Cave - his dad was a ranger- so he knew so much. It was great having my kids be the leaders because we learned so much that the rest of the group did not hear. They would listen when we stopped but we got the running commentary on the cave.

The lowest point we went was about 250 feet below the surface. There were points that the ceiling of the cave was 41 feet high. Wind Cave is the 4th longest cave in the world and the most complex. They are always discovering new branches of the cave. Cody wants to come be a Park Ranger here. The Ranger said he can come and spend the summer after he is 16 exploring the cave and working in the park. So I will Kylee repelling off George Washington's nose and Cody spend 48 hours a time exploring caves!

Now for everyone looking at my hand I promise you it is not touching the wall. I was going to without thinking but then I remember that is so against the rules! It ruins the cave, so I tell you it looks like I am leaning against it, but I am not. It is about 4-5 inches away! The ranger was telling us when the clean Wind Cave they take out about 500 pounds of lint out of the cave. Yes he said 500 pounds a year from people's clothing brushing on the walls.

This was such a neat adventure. Trenton wanted to do more the different tours. The whole time he kept saying, "This is awesome. No that is awesome. Look at this. Look at that." I guess maybe both of my boys will be there exploring caves when they are older. Trenton keeps asking when we are touring another cave. The loved doing the Jr Ranger Program here!