SmithTrip2025

Day 21: Thursday June 26

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This morning we drove the Needles Highway through the Black Hills of South Dakota.

Smokey the Bear is everywhere! The kids like pointing him out to me every time they see him.
South Dakota has Buffalo too!
My kind of speed limit!
Needles
We obviously left the trailer at our campground and drove the needles highway and this is driving through this tunnel.
The buffalo here in Custer State Park are smaller than Yellowstone.
Wind Cave National Park

Wind Cave National Park is in the southwestern corner of South Dakota. It’s known for the vast, underground Wind Cave that’s over 168 miles, with chambers like the Post Office and the Elks Room. Many of the cave’s walls are rich in honeycomb-shaped calcite formations known as boxwork. 

Cave map at Wind Cave
We did the Natural Entrance Ranger led Tour at Wind Cave.
These sweet underground girls
Boxwork
Our campsite at Custer State Park
Once we grabbed our trailer we headed off to Jewel Cave National Monument (yes we did two different caves in one day).

Jewel Cave National Monument contains Jewel Cave, currently the fifth longest cave in the world and second longest cave in the United States, with 220.01 miles of mapped passageways as of May 2024. It is located approximately 13 miles west of the town of Custer in Black Hills of South Dakota.

Three jr ranger booklets!
Jewel Cave was massive in places and tight in others! We did the ranger led Scenic Tour.
Time to go down down down
Dogtooth spar
Nailhead spar
Soda straw spar
Over 700 steps!
At 9pm there was a ranger talk at the campground amphitheater about prairie land management and then at 9:30pm a ranger talk about the night sky which was super interesting.
Kids did three Ranger programs at Jewel Cave – Jewel Caves, Junior Cave Scientist, 125th Jewel Cave Anniversary Junior Ranger getting 3 badges, a patch and a sticker.
We stopped at Wall to stretch our legs and grab a quick supper.
Burgers!
The store kept going and going and going
Tonight we are camping at Cedar Pass Campground in The Badlands National Park. Our last real campground of our trip!
We quickly unhitched at our campground in order to squeeze in a hike before the sun went down – The Notch Trail.
Isla found prickly pear cactus! A favourite of hers!
Rattlesnake skin
The view from the end of the trail
Just two girls climbing rocks
Find Caleb!
Hikers!
Sunset!
Time to climb back down
Climbing team
Last pose

At 9pm there was a ranger talk at the campground amphitheater about prairie land management and then at 9:30pm a ranger talk about the night sky which was super interesting.

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