1880 Train Ride and Jewel Caves National Monument

Sunday, August 28 2011

1880 Train Ride and Jewel  Caves National Monument

A couple more tourist attractions are on the list today to see.

The 1880 train ride was popular with all of us, although 2.25 hours was not so popular, so we opted for Phil and Lucas to go one way (Hill City to Keystone) which only takes an hour, and I pick the guys up at Keystone.

Phil has a love of trains big and small, so this was on the “must do” list one way or another.  They travelled up a 6% grade which is the steepest grade in the US.  They have to use sand to keep the wheels from slipping.  The steam sounds cool, and so does the whistle.  You can just imagine days of old where men in their suits and top hats and ladies in their flowing dresses, and corsets (take a breath when you can) chugging along the mountain rails.  This train runs on re-cycled oil - probably from your oil change at Canadian Tire.

I pick up the guys at the Keystone Train Station, and we make our way to mini-golf and a quick lunch. 

Jewel Caves is next on our list.  This Cave is the 2nd biggest cave found.  A 155 miles are known and mapped, however they believe they have only found about 2%.  They base this calculation by the weather system inside the cave and the winds inside the cave and how strong they are. If their calculations are right, this cave could stretch to 3000 miles. 

We take an elevator 242 feet down into the ground and start the tour.  These caves are ginormous!  The “rooms”  are way bigger than the Lewis and Clark Caverns, however have different formations and textures.  

Lewis and Clark Caverns had huge stalagmites and stalagtites 10 - 30 feet tall and more.  Jewel Caves didn’t come close, however the rooms and the depth of the walls and shafts were “cavernous”

The other surprising thing is my flash began to work!  Go figure!  I was able to get some pictures of the inside.  I guess if you want better pictures of Lewis and Clark Caverns you will have to go and experience it yourself.

The tour took us over 700 stairs, some being severely steep.  Was fun and we enjoyed this different cave. They are actively and continuously exploring these caves, and in the last week they have mapped over 1 mile of new cave area.  This is done by volunteers who have a passion for darkness, adventure, cool air, and tight spaces! The guide advised us that they do this mostly by free climbing, and when necessary with ropes.

The biggest room is used to camp in.  It is as long as 6 football fields and 40 feet high.  They go in and stay for 4-5 days at a time.  It is set up with sleeping bags, and all they need to survive.  Everything packed in has to be packed out, including... yep you guessed it - bodily functions!  Ewwwww!

It takes them 8-10 hours to get there.  Lots of crawling over, under.  The smallest space they crawl through is 7.5 inches high (refer to picture of Lucas in a re-creation of the space in the blog).  I like exploring, but this is just too much!

We grab supper early and get back to the hotel to veg and relax.  This is our first early night in our home away from home.  We figure we are tired due to the 7 days of jam packed fun, so we rested tonight...until tomorrow.....