Wind Cave National Park

Wind Cave is really two parks stacked on top of each other. Below the surface winds a cave that ranks among the longest and most complex ever mapped, more than a hundred and fifty miles of surveyed passage packed into a small footprint, so dense that the corridors cross over and under one another like a tangle of thread. It is a dry cave, so you will not find the dripping stalactites and stalagmites of a wet cavern. Instead the walls are decorated with formations you rarely see anywhere else.

The star of the show is boxwork. It looks like a honeycomb of thin, sharp fins of calcite standing out from the rock, dividing the surface into little boxes, some no wider than a hand and some as tall as a person. It forms when cracks in the rock fill with hard calcite and then the softer rock around them slowly wears away, leaving the fins behind. Boxwork is uncommon in caves around the world, and Wind Cave holds the vast majority of all that is known, which is the real reason to go underground here rather than at the other caves of the Black Hills.

Above ground the park opens into a beautiful stretch of mixed-grass prairie, a meeting place where the tall grasses of the east and the short grasses of the west grow side by side, backed by pine-covered hills. This is some of the best wildlife country in the region. A herd of several hundred bison lives here, along with elk, pronghorn, and busy towns of prairie dogs that draw hawks and coyotes. Thirty miles of trails and a quiet park road make the surface as much a reason to come as the cave beneath it.

• Main Entrance, off US-385 just north of Hot Springs, is open year-round and leads straight to the visitor center, where all cave tours begin. There is no fee to enter the park itself, and the road stays open through the seasons.
• From Rapid City to the north, follow US-16 and then US-385 south through the Black Hills for about an hour. From the south or from Interstate 90 and Wall, come in through Hot Springs on US-385, a drive of just a few miles up to the park boundary.

• Custer State Park begins about four miles north and is one of the largest state parks in the country, with a wildlife loop where bison, pronghorn, and begging burros gather, and some of the prettiest drives in the Black Hills.
• Jewel Cave National Monument lies about twenty-eight miles west and ranks among the longest caves in the world, a fine companion trip for anyone who wants to compare it with Wind Cave underground.
• Hot Springs, about ten miles south, is an 1890s resort town of warm mineral water and honey-colored sandstone buildings, home to an active dig where mammoth bones lie right where they were found.
• Mount Rushmore National Memorial sits about twenty-five miles north, close enough to fold into the same Black Hills trip along with the carved faces and the surrounding overlooks.

Long before any tour ticket was sold, this place was sacred to the Lakota, who know the cave as Maka Oniye, the breathing earth. In their tradition it is a place of emergence, the passage through which the buffalo and the people first came up into this world, and the breath of air moving in and out of the small entrance is understood as the earth itself breathing. That reverence still holds today, and the park works with the Lakota to honor the cave as a living, holy place, not only a scenic wonder.

The story newcomers usually tell begins in 1881, when two brothers named Tom and Jesse Bingham are said to have heard a whistling and found the wind rushing out of a hole in the ground so strongly it knocked a hat off. In the years that followed a young man named Alvin McDonald explored the passages by candlelight, crawling into the dark and keeping a diary of what he found, and it was his sense of wonder as much as anyone's that put Wind Cave on the map.

On January 9, 1903, President Theodore Roosevelt signed the law that made Wind Cave a national park. It became the seventh national park in the United States and the first cave anywhere in the world to be given that protection, a milestone in the young idea that a place could be set aside for everyone forever. The land above the cave was later added to the park as a wildlife preserve, and bison, elk, and pronghorn were brought back to the prairie in the early twentieth century after they had nearly vanished from the plains.

In the 1930s the Civilian Conservation Corps came to Wind Cave, as they did to so many parks, and their hands are all over what visitors see today. They built trails and buildings, improved the cave's walkways and stairs, and helped shape the developed areas around the entrance. Much of that careful stonework has held up for the better part of a century.

• Wind Cave holds the great majority of the world's known boxwork, the rare honeycomb calcite formation, which is why it is famous among cave lovers everywhere.
• The cave really does breathe. Air moves in or out of the natural entrance depending on the air pressure outside, and on a big weather swing the wind can be strong enough to hear.
• It is one of the longest caves on Earth by surveyed passage, yet it fits under a surprisingly small patch of ground, because the corridors are packed so tightly and cross over one another again and again.
• The cave stays around the same cool temperature all year, so a summer tour is a chance to escape the heat and a winter one is warmer than the world above.
• Above ground the park is one of the few places where you can see a whole living mixed-grass prairie, where eastern tallgrass and western shortgrass meet, complete with its bison and prairie dogs.
• Wind Cave was the seventh national park in the country and the first one ever created to protect a cave, set aside in 1903.
• A young explorer named Alvin McDonald mapped much of the early cave by candlelight in the 1890s and kept a diary of his trips, and he is buried near the natural entrance.

• There is no entrance fee for the park, but seeing the cave requires a ticket for a ranger-guided tour, so budget for those separately.
• The Natural Entrance Tour, about a mile long, is the easiest and takes you past the small historic opening where the wind was first noticed.
• The Fairgrounds Tour, about 1.3 miles, visits the most cave formations for those who want to see the boxwork at its best.
• The Garden of Eden Tour, about half a mile, is the shortest guided walk and a good choice for families or anyone short on time.
• Tours often sell out in summer, so reserve ahead on recreation.gov when you can rather than counting on same-day tickets.
• Above ground, about thirty miles of trails wind through the mixed-grass prairie and hills, open for hiking on your own schedule.

There is no fee to enter the park itself or to hike its prairie trails. Seeing the cave, however, requires a ticket for a ranger-guided tour, and those are priced separately. Check the National Park Service website for the current tour options and rates before you go.

No. The only way to see Wind Cave is on a ranger-guided tour that you buy a ticket for. There is no self-guided route through the cave. Most tours involve a fair number of stairs and some walking, so choose the tour that fits your comfort and mobility, and reserve ahead when you can.

Tours can sell out on busy summer days, so the safest plan is to reserve ahead on recreation.gov rather than counting on same-day tickets at the visitor center. Times and availability change with the season, so check the park website close to your visit.

Boxwork is a rare cave formation, thin fins of hard calcite standing out from the rock in a honeycomb pattern that divides the walls into little boxes. It forms when cracks fill with calcite and the softer rock around them wears away, leaving the fins behind. Wind Cave holds the great majority of all the boxwork known in the world, which is what makes it so special and why the shorter walking tours are built to show it off.

The prairie above the cave is home to a herd of several hundred bison, along with elk, pronghorn, and busy towns of prairie dogs, with hawks and coyotes never far behind. Early morning and evening are the best times to spot the larger animals. Bison are wild and unpredictable and can run far faster than a person, so always keep your distance, stay in your vehicle when they are near the road, and never approach them on foot.

Late spring through early fall brings the fullest schedule of cave tours and the most active prairie, with wildflowers and young bison in summer. The cave stays cool all year, so it is a fine escape from summer heat and a warm refuge in winter. Winter above ground is quiet and beautiful, though tour options may be more limited, so check the park website before a cold-season trip.

A single cave tour and a look around the visitor center can fill a couple of hours. To take a longer tour, drive the prairie for wildlife, and walk a trail or two, give the park a half to a full day. Because it sits close to Custer State Park, Hot Springs, and Mount Rushmore, many people fold it into a broader Black Hills trip.

Wind Cave sits in the southern Black Hills, with Custer State Park right on its northern doorstep about four miles away and its wildlife loop nearby. Hot Springs is about ten miles south, Jewel Cave about twenty-eight miles west, and Mount Rushmore about twenty-five miles north. All of it strings together easily, so Wind Cave is a natural stop on a Black Hills loop rather than a place you drive to on its own.

Pets are welcome in parking areas, along roads, and in some developed spots, but they are not allowed in the cave or on the hiking trails, and they can never join a cave tour. Bring water, keep pets leashed, and never leave one in a hot vehicle. Check the park website for the current pet rules before you arrive.

The park has a campground near the visitor center that is open seasonally, but there are no motels or lodges inside the boundary. For a room, look to Hot Springs just south or Custer to the north, both a short drive away, with more choices across the Black Hills.