Wind Cave National Park

Travel | Wind Cave National Park

Caves and caverns are amazing, beautiful and quite impressive. And I have had the pleasure of visiting all sizes and depths across the country, including Carlsbad Caverns. Despite all these grand experiences, I have managed to become less interested in exploring caves and caverns.

Why bring this up? Because I skipped going underground at Wind Cave National Park, and every other national park unit to follow. Perhaps this is a permanent decision, due to little interest with exploring underground.

Either way, the caves are listed below because they look beautiful and worthwhile, if you are up for the experience.

Top Five Hikes + Places to Explore

• Cave Tours - all tours are guided by rangers and vary from easy, moderate to strenuous.

• Centennial Trail - part of a 111 mile trail through the Black Hills, this 6 mile portion goes through prairies, forests and along Beaver Creek.

• Cold Brook Canyon Trail - this mildly strenuous 1.4 mile trail explores a former prairie dog town and Cold Brook Canyon.

• East Bison Flats Trail - another mildly strenuous 3.7 mile trail along the rolling prairie hills.

• Rankin Ridge Trail - a one mile trail to the highest view in the park.