South Dakota – Crazy Horse and Wind Cave (Jul 6-7, 2017)

South Dakota – Crazy Horse and Wind Cave (Jul 6-7, 2017)

Of course when you are in this area, you also have to visit Crazy Horse. “The Crazy Horse Memorial is a mountain monument under construction on privately held land in the Black Hills, in Custer County, South Dakota. It will depict the Oglala Lakota warrior, Crazy Horse, riding a horse and pointing into the distance. The memorial was commissioned by Henry Standing Bear, a Lakota elder, to be sculpted by Korczak Ziolkowski. It is operated by the Crazy Horse Memorial Foundation, a nonprofit organization.” It is unfortunate that since this is being funded by private donations and no state of federal funds, it has been being sculpted since 1948 and it not even close to being finished. Currently, they are working on this arm and the horse’s mane. As you can see from the photos below, they have also drawn out the horses ear and eyes on the mountain so you can understand how large this will be when it is done. Needless to say, you have to pay $11 per person to enter which goes to paying for the workers and other areas. You can also take a $4 bus ride to the base of the sculptor. In addition, you can take a Memorial tour to the top where you can be face to face. This costs over $125 with $105 being tax deductible. As much as we would of loved to do one of these, we could not because all tours were suspended due to lightening and rain. Needless to say, seeing it in its current stage was disappointing because of all the years it has been worked on -69 years. The sculptor was offered $10M of federal funding twice but he turned it down because he was worried about government interference.

We also went to back to the Custer State Park area. We got to see a lot more Bison (aka Buffalo).

But our funniest viewing of the Bison was while we were at the Wind Tunnel Cave area. This one bison used everything he could to scratch his back.

Then you had those that wanted to cross the road and they will win so you have to stop.

We also went to the Wind Cave National Park. “The Wind Cave area has been protected since 1903, when it became our eighth national park. Regarded as sacred by American Indians, cave Indians, cave exploration did not begin until 1881, when the entrance was noticed by two brothers, Jesse and Tom Bingham. They heard a loud whistling noise, which led them to a small hole in the ground, the cave’s only natural opening.” If you decided to go there, arrive very early as the tours fill up fast and then you have to wait. We had an hour wait before ours so we were able to drive around but if you are much later than 9:00 a.m. you probably will have to wait more than 2 hours.
There are many tours to chose from.
Regular Walking Tours

Garden of Eden Tour – Easy: Ideal for those with limited time or abilities.
Natural Entrance Tour – Moderate: The most popular tour and great for families.
Fairgrounds Tour – Strenuous: Widest array of features and most stairs of any tour.
Specialty Tours
Candlelight Tour – Strenuous: Includes some off-trail travel. Minimum age is 8 years old.
Wild Cave Tour – Very Strenuous: Crawling required. Minimum age is 16 (with signed parent permission).
We chose the Fairgrounds Tour. “This 1½ hour tour explores both the upper and middle levels of Wind Cave. Boxwork is abundant along the trail in the middle level of the cave. In the upper level, the trail winds through the larger rooms where popcorn and frostwork can be seen. This is our most strenuous walking tour. The tour enters and exits the cave by elevator and there are 450 stairs along the 2/3 mile route with one flight of 89 steps going up.” You think that 450 stairs will kill you but only the first flight of 89 stairs does. After that the stair cases are smaller. This is supposed to be an outline of our tour.

This cave was large and we learned so much. First that the caves were found by someone in the dark or with minimum “cannon ball” lights. Also, according to our tour ranger, at least one additional mile of the cave is found each year. Here is an outline of the current cave “system”. As you can see, there are many paths you can take which is why you can only go with a ranger. No self-tours.