Wind Cave

Tuesday, May 7th, 2024

After leaving Custer State Park, I moved about an hour south to Wind Cave National Park. It is mostly known for its miles of caves. But I don’t like tight places with tons of rock over my head, so I stayed above ground and watched the wildlife.

The campground within the park, Elk Mountain, was only partially open. This was still the early season. The full park and facilities does not open until May 20th. So I spent 13 days relying on only the facilities within my trailer. That however, was not a lot, as I did not plan to de-winterize the trailer until my next destination in Colorado. I purchase 3 gallons of spring water for drinking and cooking. Propane and solar power provided everything else I needed.

It seems that each new place I visit starts out with good weather for a day or two. Then it goes downhill. Wind Cave was no different. My first day was sunny and 60. The next 12 were a mixture of high wind, freezing nightly temperatures, rain, snow, and hail. I was only able to hike 2 of the days. On those I had to stay alert, as bison where everywhere and there were notices at the trailheads for mountain lions in the area.

I hiked first to a lookout tower on a nearby peak. The view at the top was great. I could see about 40 miles to the east where the prairie and badlands started. Being “off season”, meant I shared the trail with no one. When I arrived back at the trailhead, there were 2 young ladies cooking breakfast on the hood of their car. They asked if I had run into any bison on the trail and appeared relieved when I said “no”.

The second hike was an out and back in the Wind Cave Canyon. It was very scenic, but rock formations along alternating sides of the trail looked like a good place for a mountain lion to wait in ambush. I scuffed my feet a lot in the trail, hoping to scare them away. I saw none, but I did run across an elk carcass and several piles of bones along the creek.

There were 3 bison that grazed near the entrance to the campground every day. One day there were 4 pronghorn antelope also. Most days a group of four mule deer cut through my campsite during their early evening travels. Coyotes were present also, but they ran the moment they saw a human.

People came and went in the campground. It seemed most people were just stopping for a night as they travelled through, not believing Wind Cave was worth more than a day. I did talk to a few. I met a couple from Beloit, Wisconsin near where I grew up. I also talked with a gentleman tent camping. He makes the trip from Texas back up to Alaska every spring. He spent almost every afternoon re-pitching tent and tarp after being battered by high winds or hail. Yet, he always seemed cheerful.

On Sunday, Cinco de Mayo, I left the campground at 5:30 a.m., hoping to make it the 5 hours down to Colorado before the winds came up. I am writing this post from St. Vrain State Park, near Longmont, Colorado. I visited with 3 doctors while here. One was my cardiologist, the second had performed my heart ablation procedure back in September. Lastly, and most important, I met with Doctor Tyler Scott, my son. The rest of the time, I sit by my trailer and watch a pair of Osprey dive into the pond, catching fish to take to their nearby nest.

On Thursday, I will hitch up and head west to Flaming Gorge and Park City, Utah where I once worked. I will be idling while I wait for the weather to warm in the mountains of Idaho.

There are people in my life who sometimes worry about me when I go off into the fields and streams, not realizing that the country is a calm, gracious, forgiving place and that the real dangers are found in the civilization you have to pass through to get there.

John Gierach