In the morning we got up quite early and drove to Wind Cave National Park. It is both a spectacular park about AND below ground. We played around int he visitors center while waiting for our tour. We also worked on another Junior Ranger program.
We learned that the cave breathes. Today the cave was breathing OUT and 6.78 mph.
When we were on the tour we saw the natural entrance (it was the size of the ranger’s hat). The air was certainly blowing OUT.
Every cave seems to have it’s own uniqueness. Wind Cave has miles and miles of caves all stacked and squeezed into a 1 mile cube. Their famous formation was box work. Box work was formed with parts of the limestone washed away and minerals filled the cracks. The limestone continued to erode leaving really neat honeycomb like structures in the cave.
We had an amazing guide, Ranger Sam, and he was able to answer all the questions we fired at him. After the tour we wrapped up our books and went and turned them in and received our badges after the pledge.
Up next was Mammoth Site in Hot Springs. This is quite a strange place. It was once a sinkhole filled with water. Mammoths came to drink and fell in, at least that is what they THINK happened. Oddly they have only proved all the skeletons to be those of male mammoths. They side is excavated in-situ. That means they left the bones in place and just cleaned out the dirt and limestone.
We had to wear funny headphones to hear our guide. It was neat to see all the work that is being done at the site still. They have plans for a lot more excavation.
A giant building was constructed around the site to preserve the fossils and bones.
We had such a great time Mom found out they had mini camps starting tomorrow so we booked a few classes and will come back again.