54 degrees and pitch darkness on a hot July afternoon? Nowhere else but 209 feet underground in Wind Cave National Park. Located in Hot Springs South Dakota, the cave is a sacred site for the Lakota Indians and is the central part of the Lakota Emergence story. Our guide was a young African American woman from the South. She was an excellent, knowledgeable guide that went out of her way to engage the children on the tour. There was a sweet young family with two girls. Every time the youngest one saw a small side tunnel as we walked along the path she would say, “look its a baby cave.” Which only served to conjured up visions of a baby's bloody knees as it crawled over the sharp edges of the Boxwork. I had to shake that image out of my head so I could enjoy the rest of the tour. Wind Cave is a fairly dry cave. It doesn't have a lot of the stalactites and stalagmites I have seen on other cave tours. Instead the cave has 95% of the world's known Boxwork. Rare and beautiful, no one, let alone a baby, would be allowed to crawl around in it! Now lets consider cave popcorn. Its really cave sweat (more interesting, equally disturbing images come to mind). It forms when calcite rich water beads up and over time crystallizes on the surface of the cave wall. Frostwork is another beautiful formation made from aragonite. When crystallized, the mineral forms delicate branches of needles or frost-like structures. When we got to the deepest part of the tour, there was a big open area where we gathered for a moment of complete darkness. The guide turned off the lights and asked everyone to remain in place. I couldn't see my hand in front of my face. Then she lit a lantern to show us what it was like for the early cave explorers and tourists. We were walking on concrete paths laid by the Civil Conservation Core with electric lights all along the way. Turn-of-the century, women explorers, had to find their footing on undeveloped paths, led by lantern light, in ankle length skirts! I was grateful for pants, sneakers and an elevator ride back up to the surface.
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