We woke up in Custer and headed to Jewel Cave, the 3rd longest cave in the world! When it was first established in 1908 less than a mile of it had been documented. Now it’s over 180 miles long. Known as Jewel Cave for all of the calcite crystals throughout, the girls had so much fun exploring the cave and learning about frostwork, draperies, and dogtooth spar with sparkles around every bend and turn.
The girls did a great job navigating the cave and even learned so much they passed their junior ranger test to earn their badges and patches! It was a fun morning of learning and exploring.
Even Norah got to take the Jr. Ranger Oath and repeat after a ranger that she would do all she can to protect and preserve our National Parks. It was so cute watching her repeat each line holding her little hand up high although she could barely see over the counter.
The cave stays a constant 49 degrees, so it was quite a change from the 101 degree temperatures that we started with. Inside the cave it was pretty dark, so this is one of the only photos of the calcite crystals that I was able to get.
From Jewel Cave we found a great little spot to have a little picnic lunch and enjoy the quiet scenery of Custer until it was time to head off on another adventure. This time, to Needles Highway. With hairpin curves and narrow granite tunnels, it was a beautiful drive on our way to Sylvan Lake. Named “Needles” for all of the slender granite peaks, we passed by “Cathedral Spires” and the “Needles Eye” and also got to see some really awesome rock climbers scaling some of these huge peaks.
We arrived at Sylvan Lake in hopes of taking a canoe out and experiencing Sylvan from the water. However, Mother Nature once again had different plans. For a third day in row the afternoon brought vicious thunderstorms. Lucky for us, we had a beautiful cabin at Sylvan for the night, so we used that time to relax, enjoy the view from our cabin and soak up the nature around us. The girls and Mark enjoyed a few games of Uno, while Emma and I snuggled in and enjoyed listening to the sights and sounds around us.
Check out the view outside our bedroom window. I love not having screens on the windows and no worries of bugs!
Beautiful Sylvan Lake right before the storm hit.
This was the view from our picnic table outside our cabin (and the corner of our cabin). Can't beat that sight right our your front door! Once the storm subsided (and the tornado warning expired) J we headed out for a bit of dinner. This time, to The Buglin’ Bull. One of the best restaurants in town, we figured being so highly rated among the locals, we better try it out. It earned a gold star from the whole crew! We headed back to Sylvan took a quick hike around the lake and headed back to the cabin before the next round of storms hit. We were so thankful to have such an awesome cabin to spend our rainy night and enjoy truly being in the middle of the black hills.
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