Bo's Journal 33 More SD-Jewel Cave-Badlands/Devil's Tower WY

Jewel Cave truly lives up to its name. We had been told about this cave by a Pierre, SD gal we met, way back in Feb. 2006, who said she thought it was way more beautiful than Wind Cave. My Ladies just had to go confirm this, of course. Jewel is approximately the same age as Wind Cave, plus it is the second longest cave in the world at 134 mapped miles. The estimate is that this represents about 5% of the cave’s potential. I thought it would be too cool if they found out in the future that the two caves actually meet somewhere deep in the earth. Anyway, Cokie’s pictures always tell the story best:













Off we dashed to Rapid City and all the errand stuff we have to do every once in a while – dog food, chocolate, chips and salsa; you know the good stuff! We found a sweet, little private campground and settled in to try and stay cool in 108 degree misery! Blessed survival Pod did its best to keep us comfortable, but it wasn’t easy. We survived for two bad days then headed out to the Badlands. This country is that strange but beautiful combination of severity and serenity much like Death Valley. The sandstone, shale and siltstone layers account for the variety of subtle colors plus recent rains had encouraged new grasses to grow, thus the entire landscape was a palette of pastels.














Hoping to catch some of the cooler weather back in the Black Hills and to maybe outrun some of the severe thunderstorms, we headed north and west toward Spearfish, SD and Devil’s Tower, Wyoming. Devil’s Tower is like nothing else we have ever seen. It is much like the Tetons in that it seems to jump straight up out of the prairie, but they are whole mountains; this is more human scale at a bit over 800 feet tall and is something you can actually walk around. Again it is part of that 60 to 65 million year old group of phenomenon that was formed during the great Rocky Mountain Uplift Period. This tower of igneous rock is thought to be the plug of a volcano or maybe a magma intrusion into a space in the limestone formation about 1.5 miles down in the earth. Erosion over the millennium has exposed the granite and created its current shape.




There are several tribal myths about the mountain involving a huge bear which clawed the sides of the tower leaving the deep vertical groves. The area Indian tribes consider the Tower to sacred ground and continue to conduct ceremonies and rituals such as leaving prayer bundles and offerings in the forest.






The great columns do slough off, but the last recorded fall was way back in 1906, the same year it became a National Monument. This erosion thing is really s l o w! All in all we enjoyed the cooler weather, the hikes, the Belle Fourche River, critters and the great views in this unique National Monument.





We plotted our course for North Dakota and started the next adventure after a two day stay. We are hoping we will find something to report in that wide open, sorta empty state. Stay tuned!