Heed the Call of the Wild at Wind Cave National Park
RV Lifestyle & Repair EditorsDescription
If you listen closely, you can almost hear the whistle and feel the breeze. Walk in the direction of that faint noise and that gentle blow, cross wavelike prairie and untamed forest, walk until you can’t walk any farther, and you’ll have found it. Wind Cave, a natural wonder, one of the world’s oldest caves and the first to be endowed as a national park. She’s one of those unexplainable phenomena that baffles man and questions faith, and she rests in America’s backyard.
The miracle of Wind Cave National Park
In the southwestern corner of South Dakota, just down the road from Mount Rushmore, clear of the hustle and bustle of manmade everything, Wind Cave National Park unfolds like a wild blanket across the eastern shoulder of the Black Hills. Currents of tall grasses move in the wind, and somewhere at the heart of the prairie, an underground world beckons to be noticed. Miles upon miles of explored and unexplored caves stretch beneath this portion of the great state, where natives lived for centuries and thanked the gods for their bounty.
And to think: Wind Cave may never have been discovered by the white man, were it not for two hunters, the Bingham brothers, having their hats blown off by a strange wind emitted from a hole in the ground. In the years that followed, explorers came from around the country to uncover the mysteries that lie under the surface at Wind Cave National Park, including Alvin McDonald, the 16-year-old adventurer who first plunged into the depths of Wind Cave.
Nowadays, more than one million visitors make their way to Wind Cave National Park to venture into the darkness of Wind Cave to witness the almost magical formations and hidden secrets that await miles below the surface of the earth. Take your trip to Wind Cave National Park today, and see what the breeze has to say!
Grass, in waves, rising and falling like the sea. These are the wind swept grasslands of the Dakotas. In these lands you'll find Wind Cave National Park. Here in the state of South Dakota, not far from Mount Rushmore on the southeastern shoulder of the Black Hills, over a million people visit annually. Wind Cave National Park is a park with a distinct interior and an exterior that stretches for miles of sunlit prairie and a forest teaming with wildlife. Its interior and namesake lies under the earth, miles and miles of caverns embellished with geological excess. Centuries ago the Lakota of the great Sioux nation revered this cave as the underground womb of its people who emerged from its steps at the creation of the world. It might've gone undiscovered by white settlers had it not been for the wind. One day in 1881 the Bingham brothers, Tom and Jesse, while tracking a wounded deer were distracted by a strange whistling sound which seemed to be coming from out of the earth. They knelt down to investigate a strange blowhole, when out blew a wind blowing off one of their hats. This incident led to the discovery of one of the world's oldest caves. Later, when it was discovered that the cave extended beyond the original hole, a 16 year old named Alvin McDonald began exploring, discovering a maze like underground chamber system. Many with rare calcite formations that resembled delicate honeycombs called box work. Today there are almost 120 miles of explored passage ways. Wind Cave is the first cave to be designated a national park. Not only the cave, but it's miles of wilderness invite exploring. It's a driving park, but visitors to the cave must remember, hold on to your hat.
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