We spent the night at Comanche Campground just past Jewel Cave off of Route 16. We were actually at Jewel Cave before 9 am. That is an early start for us!

Jewel Cave

Scott worked with Cody on his junior ranger book and I worked with Brooke.  Sometimes Cody’s junior ranger books are different than Brooke’s.  Cody needed to go on a hike for part of his book and then draw the plants and animals he saw.  He is getting pretty good at drawing animals.  They have heads and bodies now!  Cody was not originally happy about the hike, but he had a great time with Scott.

In order to go on the spelunking cave tour you have to fit through the 8 1/2 by 24 inch opening. They put a cement block that size in front of the visitor’s center so you can practice. You also have to be sixteen, so Brooke has something to look forward to.

We learned from the Fry family yesterday that the 20 minute cave tour is free with the National Park Annual Pass. The tour was short, but the perfect amount for Cody as food and drink are not allowed on the tour and we have learned Cody works best with a constant flow of food. We actually entered the cave through an elevator from the visitor’s center. The elevator traveled 200 feet in a matter of seconds. Jewel Cave is named for the calcite crystals in the cave.

It was only 45 degrees in the cave, so Cody was up for snuggling and a little mini wrestling session.

Scott had to try the cement block. Thankfully Ranger Shannon warned Scott to take his belt buckle off and everything out of his pockets because we watched as another dad became painfully stuck on his belt buckle.

Brooke had to crawl through the cement block again after Scott did.

After the cave tour we hopped right outside to a junior ranger activity of making an animal plaster cast. Ranger Shannon helped us complete our ranger activity books while she worked away on the plaster. She told us about her college days of taking backpacking classes for college credit. She also shared her excitement for dissecting grizzly bear scat (poop). The kids earned another badge and patch.  Jewel Cave ran out of badges so we get to look forward to receiving those in the mail.

Ranger Ken told us Jewel Cave is the third longest cave in the world. Jewel Cave was not originally on our list of things to do, but the talk with the Fry family yesterday put it on the list. It was a good recommendation. Next we headed to Wind Cave National Park only 30 miles from Jewel Cave.

Wind Cave

We didn’t arrive at Wind Cave until after noon.  We didn’t intend to spend so much time at Jewel Cave, but we really enjoyed it.  Unfortunately though this did not leave much time for Wind Cave.  We chose not to go on a cave tour since the shortest cave tour was an hour and a half.  We didn’t think Cody would do well with no food for that long of a tour.  Maybe in a few years.  We watched a video, took a short hike to see the original cave opening (I’m pointing to it in the middle picture above) and wrapped up the junior ranger badge.

Scott was demonstrating his wild “whine-a-lo” call with a buffalo horn.

Jewel Cave is famous for what is pictured: boxwork formations.

This reminds me of one of the really bad jokes we have been telling in the car on this trip.  Why do cows have bells? Because their horns don’t work.  That didn’t have you laughing?  Why didn’t the skeleton cross the road?  He didn’t have guts.  Get it?  Moving on…

Mount Rushmore

Scott and I were here sometime during college and we don’t remember the $11 charge to park.  Ouch.  You probably know who the four presidents are, but do you know what each of them stand for? Washington represents the birth of the country.  Jefferson represents the expansion of the country due to the Louisiana Purchase.  Lincoln represents the preservation of the country.  Roosevelt represents the development of the country with his role the Panama Canal construction.

Fun facts: Gutzan Borglum, the sculptor behind Mount Rushmore, died in March of 1941 and work on the monument stopped in October of 1941.  The National Park Service considers the monument finished, but Borglum’s vision is in the middle picture just below.  Borglum originally sculpted Jefferson into the rock first and then realized he would not have enough material to work with, so they blasted it all off and started over.

It is hard to see, but in front of Lincoln hangs a line. When sculpting Mount Rushmore Borglum used a “pointing” machine. The models were sized at a ratio of 1:12 – one inch on the model would equal one foot on the mountain. They would place a protractor plate on top of the model head and extend out a ruled bar. They would use the protractor to get the right angle and the bar with a weighted plum line hanging from it to get the right measurement of height on the mountain.

We attended a fantastic ranger talk in the sculptor’s studio with Ranger Jason.  He showed us the tools used to create the monument and told us some more fun facts like: Who is the president that brought ice cream over to the United States?  Thomas Jefferson brought the recipe over from France while he was the French Ambassador.

The chair hanging is a swing seat called a Bosun chair. The workers would sit in these as they worked on the Mountain.

After the ranger talk we were invited to take a closer look at the tools used.

We took a picture of another family’s vehicle that had everything, including the kitchen sink strapped in multiple ways to the roof. We have seen some interesting methods of transporting bikes and other equipment on the trip.

Cody using the markers to make an airplane instead of coloring. I love seeing their imagination at work.

Brooke first called Mount Rushmore, Mount Mush-More.  Three junior ranger badges in one day.  We had really high hopes of getting the Badlands in today too, but there are only so many hours in a day and so many amazing things to explore.

We tried camping in the Badlands campground, but it was (not surprisingly) full.  Not only was it a Friday night, but they were hosting an astronomy festival this weekend.  We added a few more things to our list of things to do on the next trip to the Badlands: Astronomy Festival and the Minuteman Missile National Historic Site.  One of the astronomy sessions this weekend included rocket building and launching. If only we had more time…

While Scott cooked up some dinner Brooke and Cody worked on their junior ranger books.  Then Brooke and I snapped some pictures of the sunset.

We stayed at a campground just outside of the Badlands. The AAA discount made camping outside of the park cheaper and included free showers and wi-fi.  A long shower with no button pushing or coins to put in!  Yippee!

As I was getting out of the shower Brooke came in holding Cody’s hand.  She had her head slightly tilted down and was using that voice that means that something bad happened.  Then I looked closer and saw Cody’s chin was more colorful than it was before and his head a little more lumpy.  Cody had been trying to jump on the blue thing up above while Brooke pushed.  Cody was only holding on with one hand and slipped off.  He landed on his chin and forehead.  To literally add insult to injury Brooke couldn’t see in the dark and ran over Cody scrapping up his knee.  Once again I am glad he is partly made of rubber.  I cleaned him up and we headed to bed.  We were up pretty late reading old “Bedtime Math” e-mails and looking at the posts as they were uploading.