This week, my family and I visited Jewel Cave for the first time. While not exactly hiking, though there are over 700 steps to traverse, a cave provides an important outdoor experience. This is only the third cave I have ever visited, but so far it’s the best. Jewel Cave hosts the most spectacular rock and crystal formations I have ever seen, thus illustrating the phenomenal geology of the Black Hills.

 

The main crystal formations seen in Jewel Cave are nail spar and dog tooth, as well as several other calcite formations. Frankly, walking through the cave is rather like walking through a large geode.

 

Jewel Cave is the world’s second-longest cave with 143.03 mapped miles. Thanks to dedicated volunteer explorers, two-to-four new miles of cave are mapped each year. The Scenic Tour that most visitors take is 1 hour and 20 minutes long, exploring a tiny fraction of what’s actually mapped. The elevator entrance for cave tours is over four hours, in cave-walking time, from the natural cave entrance. However, the Lantern Tour uses the natural entrance.

 

Jewel Cave is also home to nine species of bats; however, they enter and leave via the natural entrance so you won’t see any on the Scenic Tour. The cave is a significant hibernation spot for bats in the winter, during which time the natural entrance is fitted with a special “bat gate” allowing the animals passage, but not humans.

 

Jewel Cave National Monument is located 13 miles west of Custer on Highway 16. It’s open year round, with the exceptions of Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year’s Days. Check http://www.nps.gov/jeca/index.htm for detailed information on hours of operation, tour schedule and ticket prices.

 

Take some time to see Jewel Cave. Aptly named; it’s truly a gem of geologic display.