I am a sucker for a national park passport stamp, so it was a no-brainer that I would hit up the national monument 15 minutes from my campground. So I made reservations for Jewel Cave before I even left home. I decided to visit on the first real day of my vacation after I worked my final half day for the week. I booked later in the afternoon and headed out about lunch time. This gave me a bit of time to explore before my tour.

Jewel Cave is a small park with a little visitor center and theater at the main cave entrance and a CCC cabin near the natural cave entrance. The natural entrance is a short hike from the parking lot and definitely worth the trip. It is hard to imagine public tours were ever conducted through this tiny opening. Nature tourists of the past were hardy.

As I had a bit of time to kill before my tour, I went on a little walk from the visitor center to the natural entrance parking lot via the Canyons Trail. This was only about 1.5 miles roundtrip, but was a great glimpse into the nature of the area. I loved spending time among the prairie flowers, watching the pollinators visit the beautiful blooms under the vast blue skies.

The Jewel Cave tours leave from the visitor center and surprisingly take you into the cave via elevator and then airlock door. The Jewel Cave is a barometric cave with only the single natural entrance, so it’s size is estimated by scientists measuring air flow. I was very fortunate to be on a tour of about a dozen people when most tours are for 30. This allowed for plenty of opportunity to stop and hear from the ranger on the geology and history of the cave. The cave also seemed to have plenty of large rooms that allowed for gathering for talks.

I greatly enjoyed the interpretation at this site. The cave formations were a little more subtle that those in other caves. Most were small variations of the rock and not as boldly colored as can be found in some caves. But the more delicate formations were pretty and I really liked to hear the stories from the guide. I actually preferred this tour to that of the nearby Wind Cave, mostly because there seemed to more opportunity to gather as a group to ranger stories. I think it is definitely a hidden jewel among the much more popular Black Hills attractions.