Events of Saturday, July 24, 2010

                At about 7 o’ clock, we were awakened by our father, and hurried so that we could leave our campsite and get on the road toward Jewel Cave National Monument. We had reserved a spot on the Historical Lantern Tour, a ranger led tour through Jewel Cave using just lanterns, which burned by oil. I carried a lantern and was tired after holding this heavy lantern in awkward positions. You couldn’t hang it by your leg if you were wearing shorts, which I was or every put it down. Afterwards I was tired, but decided that it was worth it. Considering that the cave was 49 degrees, the hot lantern was handy in putting cold hands by.

Our tour guide ranger was named Ranger Clint and he was extremely funny. We all loved it when, in a room called the “Chimney room”, because there is a chimney in it, we met up with another group of tourists. Their ranger was Keagan, who joked with Clint about having to climb a rope ladder to get out of the cave as well as the tour members needing to know how to swim in order to ford a stream near the exit of the cave. In the future, Jewel Cave is going to have all the rangers dress up as old-fashioned people when leading the historic lantern tours. Keagan was dressed as a CCC worker from the 1930s, with a fake accent and everything. Clint said later that Keagan is the only ranger with a minor in drama and that Keagan was lucky, because he got to wear a fedora in the cave.

The tour was labeled “strenuous”, but really was a lot of fun. Ranger Clint led us through many twists and turns like “Fat Man’s Misery” (a really narrow passage) and “Tall Man’s Misery” (a rather short passage). Actually the tour was pretty much all “Tall Man’s Misery” for Ben and Daddy. Even I had to crouch down to get through some parts. At a portion called the “The Trapdoor” we had to go one at a time down a “sladder” (a severely inclined staircase with thin wooden slats, so called because they can’t decide whether it is stairs or a ladder.) It was a little scary as it twisted, turned and went down into the dark. The lantern barely lit the next step. But it was very fun. I was surprised to learn that we had only gone about a half a mile into the cave. Mom’s pedometer measured it more like 1.5 miles but that was because it measured all the vertical steps as well. It took us over an hour and a half to cover this distance. In the end we were glad to see the sunlight and feel the warmth of the sun.

 After the finish of this wonderful tour, we had lunch and then made our way toward Crazy Horse Memorial. At the memorial, we enjoyed examining many unique pieces of Indian art, and Dad bought a huge buffalo hoodie made from llama wool. It is really soft and pretty heavy. It should keep him plenty warm.

                After leaving the Crazy Horse Memorial, we began to make our way towards Mount Rushmore National Monument. We learned what we could in the visitor center and then had taco salad in the RV for dinner. After dinner we hiked the Presidential Trail before attending the night show. There we listened to a Ranger talk, watched a movie about the memorial, honored all the veterans present as the flag was lowered for the day and then got to see the four heads of Mt. Rushmore lit up in the night sky. Following the show, we sleepily went to the RV and the kids went to sleep while the parents drove and parked us in a Sam’s Club parking lot for the night. Our first night of boondocking had begun.