Crystalline veins of pale pink rose quartz. Sparkling silver mica flakes scattered on the ground. Craggy rock outcroppings dotted with vivid wildflowers.

The 700 foot scramble up to Little Devils Tower and the Cathedral Spires certainly took our breath away (in both senses of the word)! Standing 6,959 feet up, at eye level with circling hawks was truly unforgettable. South Dakota’s Black Hills are simply magnificent!

The name “Black Hills” comes from the Lakota Sioux words Paha Sapa, which refers to the dark appearance of the pine covered mountains from a distance. There is an almost overwhelming number of attractions in the region… including Mount Rushmore, Crazy Horse Memorial, Devils Tower, Jewel Cave, Custer State Park, and Wind Cave.

Driving through the Black Hills is a destination of its own accord. The Needles Highway has miles of hairpin turns, winding curves, and dramatic scenic vistas.  

CUSTER STATE PARK-

Once deemed "impossible" to construct, the Needles Eye Tunnel’s small granite opening is only 8 feet 9 inches wide by 9 feet 8 inches high. For scale, most F-150 pick-up trucks are 6.65 feet wide… not a whole lot of margin for error! We retracted our truck’s side mirrors to avoid scraping the tunnel. 

But while one-way tunnels are fun for tourists, sometimes they are quite inconvenient for emergency response staff. When approaching the tunnel entrance, we witnessed a first responder attempting to drive through the tunnel… unfortunately his response time was impacted by the line of sightseers that had to hit reverse for him to pass through this tight one-way tunnel. 

When we arrived at Custer State Park, we quickly learned why the first responder truck was in such a hurry! A forest fire had broken out near Black Elk Peak—the trail we had originally planned to do that day. Law enforcement immediately evacuated swimmers from Sylvan Lake and the Forest Service sent spotters to coordinate fire control.

We witnessed massive helicopters scooping up 350+ gallon bucket loads of lake water to put out the wildfire. It was like watching a well-rehearsed aerial ballet.... Perching on boulders near the bucket, while feeling the rotor wash of the birds overhead and watching the pilots expertly maneuver was incredible. We were quite impressed with the Sheriff, Custer State Park, & U.S. Forest Service’s swift response and coordination! (Check out our Instagram page for video footage)

After watching the helicopters fly around for an hour, we hiked the Sunday Gulch Trail. This charming trail had such a steep descent, that the park service installed metal railings on the boulders to prevent one from slipping on the slick rock. The trail broke out into beautiful views of wildflower meadows and mountains, before looping back to the lake. Custer State Park was absolutely magnificent! 

ELEVATOR WOES-

The cost of maintaining infrastructure across the country’s millions of acres of well-loved national park properties is a challenge for all U.S. NPS facility managers. Our main reason for coming to the Black Hills region was to see the gorgeous subterranean trails at Wind Cave National Park. Unfortunately, we weren’t able to see the park’s underground features since the cavern was closed due to elevator maintenance. 

Wind Cave’s subterranean tours have been shut-down for more than a year, since the elevators went down in June 2019. The Custer County Chronicle reported that the elevator closure has cost the park more than $655,296 in lost revenue. Sadly, as losses drag on, the drop in visitation revenue will impact the park’s ability to hire staff and complete improvement projects in the future. 

This problem isn’t isolated to one park--Jewel Cave National Monument in South Dakota and Carlsbad Cavern National Park in New Mexico have suffered similar issues with aging elevator equipment. On our visit, we spoke to a park ranger who said that a new contract is underway to fix the Wind Cave elevator by September… assuming that COVID cases go down, the park hopes to reopen the caves by then. 

To support the park amidst the closure, we made a point of exploring Wind Cave’s surface trails and purchasing some items from the gift shop. On the scenic drive into the park, we spotted prairie dogs and bison roaming the grasslands. We enjoyed hiking the scenic Rankin Ridge Nature Trail and the short hike to the natural entrance of the cave from the Visitor’s Center. We hope to return and explore the underground trails whenever the cavern is re-opened. 

OUR FAVORITE PLACES-

#1: Little Devil’s Tower (spectacular hike to rocky precipice overlooking Black Elk Peak and the Cathedral Spires)

#2: Sunday Gulch Trail at Sylvan Lake (steep and narrow hike down slippery boulders perched over gulch with miniature waterfalls)

#3: Needles Highway (curvy mountain road with hairpin turns and multiple scenic overlooks)

#4: Wind Cave Rankin Ridge (unfortunately the cavern was closed due to elevator maintenance so we only got to see some surface trails)

MISADVENTURES-

Do cave closures and wildfire fights count? We attempted to hike the 7,242 ft tall Black Elk Peak (the highest point east of the Rockies) on Wednesday but we were thwarted by a forest fire. We tried again on Thursday but we arrived at the trailhead we found that the trail was still closed due to the firefighting effort. Thankfully we were able to find another good conditioning trail on Bear Mountain. We hiked to the fire tower at 7,166 ft above sea level. 

While hiking Bear Mountain, we observed bright flocks of yellow butterflies lingering in the muddy sections. This interesting behavior is known as “mud puddling.” Apparently flower nectar has plenty of sugar, but not much sodium. Butterflies gather at mud puddles to procure additional minerals; researchers have observed that male butterflies seem to particularly require supplemental salt intake for mating.

____________________________________________________________________

WIND CAVE NATIONAL PARK STATS:

Established: January 1903      /      Size: 28,295 acres

Annual Visitors: 610,000     /       Location: South Dakota

~Safe Travels, Nathalie

2,650 miles traveled and 5 national parks explored