10%

Wind Cave National Park

Winding roads, prairie dogs in the plains

By Scott Richardson

November 28^th, 2020

Wind Cave is famous for the cavern’s intricate box work patterns, creating dizzying tapestries of rock formations along the cave’s walls and ceilings. Unfortunately, the star attraction of Wind Cave was off-limits due to a malfunctioning elevator, so we were limited to exploring life above the cave.

Above ground is miles of hilly, grassy plains, set against the backdrop of the Black Hills. While this may initially sound plain, the grassland is teeming with life: prarie dogs, coyote, bison, and pronghorn all call this habitat home, and entertain vistors.

Wind Cave National Park was the third destination on our September road trip. You can explore the other parts of our trip here: Westbound/eastbound travel | Grand Teton | Yellowstone | Badlands

We arrived in Wind Cave a day earlier than expected. We had failed to find any wildlife while driving the wildlife loop in Custer State Park, so we looked at the map and found a gravel road we could detour on. That led us into the miles of backroads of Wind Cave National Park.

Although the roads were gravel, they weren’t always well-kept. The hard-packed dirt would occasionally slip into a pothole that could swallow the car, so we cautiously drove along the roads in case a hole were to suddenly appear.

A prairie dog curiously gazes in search of predators.

After driving for a bit, we saw little objects moving on both sides of the road and found ourselves in the middle of a prairie dog town. We watched as the prairie dogs dipped in and out of their burrows, keeping watch for predators and chirping loudly to alert each other of potential danger.

A prairie dog pokes its head out of the ground.

Dozens of prairie dogs tipped as they sensed danger when we stopped along the road.

Each prairie dog has its own personality: some seemed more comfortable with our presence than others, and some were focused on digging new burrows, as others seemed keen to spend their time nibbling on the grasses.

We admired bison grazing along the backroads and found a pronghorn resting in the grass. The seemingly empty stretches of plains were full of life.

A prairie dog keeps watch in between bites of food.

A pronghorn antelope rests in the grasslands.

The landscape of Wind Cave is stark: small rolling hills and grassland stretch across the horizon with small pockets of trees dotting the landscape.

A road winds through Wind Cave’s grasslands.

The gravel road was mostly in good shape, but featured an occasional pothole that could swallow a car.

A wide panorama of the landscape at Wind Cave.

We eventually left the winding backroads of the grasslands and found a hiking trail that climbed a ridge. The trail looped through a sparse forest and culminated with a view of the plains below.

We spent the following day exploring more of Wind Cave’s fire roads and wooden hills. We hiked from the road out to the park boundary, admiring the variety of colors in the rocks and leaves of the ground cover.