Saturday was another early morning. We had 9:00 a.m. tickets for the Fairgrounds tour of Wind Cave.
Wind Cave was a surprise. I expected it to be similar to Jewel Cave, since they are only 20 miles apart and may even be connected at some yet-undiscovered point.
However, it was vastly different. The cave is absolutely covered in this formation called boxwork, which looks a little like honeycombs.
I had some trouble fully appreciating this cave. Our tour guide moved us through very quickly. There was a lot of ground to cover. I didn’t get a chance to take many pictures.
Plus, the lighting at floor level was poor, which made walking along uneven floors challenging.
On top of that, for some reason I was feeling dizzy and lightheaded that morning. I was afraid that I was going to have to ask to leave in the middle of the tour, which would not have gone over well with our guide at all!
It was a fascinating cave, though, simply because it was so different from anything I had seen before.
On our way to our next stop, we encountered this majestic fellow.
The Mammoth Site
Next up was a tour of the Mammoth Site in Hot Springs, South Dakota.
At the Mammoth Site, the bones of up to 61 Columbian and woolly mammoths were discovered in what was once, a very long time ago, a sinkhole.
The sinkhole was fed by a warm spring, creating a pond with steep, slippery sides. The mammoths would enter the pond to eat the grasses that grew along the sides, drink, or bathe, and then they wouldn’t be able to get out again.
Greg and I took the audio tour around the site. It was very interesting. We learned a lot about determining the age and gender of mammoths.
Meanderings & Mind Munchies 