Wind Cave and Snow

Due to the rain and cold, we opted out of a second visit to Mount Rushmore or a first visit to Crazy Horse Monument. Wind Cave, which we had never seen was on the calendar. On our way to Wind Cave, we saw turkeys again, a herd on mule deer, bison and prairie dogs. Alan took pictures with his fancy camera and you will have to wait for those after he dumps them to his computer. 

Wind Cave is the 7th designated National Park and the first one one that was a Cave. The Cave is complex and deep. The opening barely fits a small person:



Can you imagine climbing into that hole to explore?  Air flows in and out of that hole in reaction to the barometric pressure outside. They now have a big opening for tours.  

The Cave is known for its unique rock formation called "boxwork".  



This rock forms by calcite Being deposited into sandstone and then water washing away the sandstone.  95% of the Boxwork in the world is in Wind Cave. 

We were fortunate to get a cabin in Yellowstone for Monday night so we had to go on our way to Cody, the closest town to the East Entrance. We drove the "scenic" route which was also the snowiest and was in the clouds or fog.






It was a bit chilly and chilling, but we made it to the WalMart parking lot in Cody by 9:00 pm or so. We crashed in the back without dinner and slept through to 6:00 am.  Neither of us can get over how well we sleep in the car AND in a parking lot.  It is nuts!

Today we are in Yellowstone.  Wait for the awesome pics.

Comments

  1. UnknownSeptember 25, 2017 at 6:04 PM

    Did u go into cave? I love your travel log, makes me want to take a cross country trip...which I have never wanted to do before now!

    ReplyDelete
  2. CarolOctober 2, 2017 at 4:58 PM

    Yes. We went into the cave. Lots of steps, but not scary or arduous.

    ReplyDelete

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