Wind Cave Take 2

11 years ago when Scott and I did our first National Park/Cross Country trip, we drove through Wind Caves National Park.  We hadn’t yet begun our quest to see every National Park, so we actually just drove through the park and enjoyed the prairie dogs and buffalo.  It was literally a stop on our way, not a destination in itself.  This time, Scott and I wanted to see the park the right way and go on a cave tour. (And as an added bonus we get to take a new picture of ourselves in front of the sign instead of the one where we posed as a prairie dog and buffalo…. long hours in the car can make one do loony things)

 

This time we again got to see prairie dogs.  However, we didn’t find any buffalo in the park.  The kids enjoyed sitting out by the field and listening to the chatter of the prairie dogs as well as watching them pop up and down in their holes.

 

 

We also went on a hour and half hike/tour inside of wind cave.   Wind Cave is different from other caves because it has something called box work in it.  Unlike other caves I’ve visited it doesn’t have moving water making formations, but instead it was made by a large amount of sitting water which then receded, forming the box work. 

Wind Cave did have some neat popcorn formations as well.   I’ll be honest, it was interesting to see and learn about these formations, but we didn’t find them as pretty or spectacular as those I’ve seen in Carlsbad Caverns. 

Another interesting thing about Wind Cave is that it is miles and miles of caves which kind of wrap around each other in a maze like fashion.  (think giant pile of spaghetti noodles)  This made it fun to hike around in.

Once again our little man did a great job hiking.  And once again he reached a point where he wanted carried and then I watched him fall asleep in my arms.  I have gotten to the point where I can tell when he’s going to fall asleep.  His body gets all heavy and limp and you can literally watch him fall asleep before your eyes.  He even snores and survives being transferred into the car seat. 

We then headed back to our camp site to enjoy some of the attractions of the campground.  The kids loved the water slide, splash pad, swimming pool and climbing wall.

However, the highlight for them all was getting to have a camp fire.   It was our first and most likely only camp fire of our trip due to fire restrictions in most of the states we’ve visited.    So, we lived it up… cooking hot dogs, baked beans, pocket pizzas and marshmallows over the fire. 

Unfortunately, that night we had a camping first for the circus fam… throw up in the tent.   Seems it wasn’t altitude sickness or dehydration that our oldest was battling back at Sand Dunes, as he again got quite sick, this time in our tent in the middle of the night.  Thankfully this camp ground also had a laundry mat and we were able to wash his sleeping bag the next morning.  He seemed fine the next day and we are hoping and praying it doesn’t pass through the rest of the crew.