After some great times in Colorado with friends we stayed with for a week, we started our journey north. We stopped in Torrington, Wyoming, and stayed at a great city park called Pioneer Park. It was empty except for us and for an inexpensive city park in the middle of nowhere it turned out really nice. This also happened to be where the local fire department practiced so we had some interesting entertainment right outside our front window that afternoon.

The next morning we made it to Wind Cave National Park in Hot Spring, South Dakota (4/19/2022). This would mark our 20th state and the first new one since the pandemic started. We stayed just one night at the Elk Mountain Campground in the park near the visitor center. We did not actually go on a Wind Cave tour since we had already purchased tour tickets for the Jewel Cave National Monument nearby instead (which is supposedly way better). In 1890 the McDonald family (not related) moved to the area where they found and gave tours of the Wind Cave which houses the sixth longest cave system in the world.

The campground is pretty basic, with most of the sites just being pull-outs off the side of the camp road - no hookups and not level in most spots. No problem for us though, especially when it’s only one night. There were a few other campers there with us, and it was very quiet. The first thing I did was pull out our mat and take a nap since the weather was perfect and all you could hear was the wind blowing in the surrounding grasslands. We got some visitors later that afternoon when a family of mule deer came through our site.

The following morning we hiked the Elk Mountain Trail from the campground which is up high on the hills and gives a great view of the surrounding Black Hills, and then the Prairie Vista loop from the visitor center. As we’ve been told, it is very pretty this time of year and we unexpectedly saw plenty of free-roaming bison along the highway. Check out the pictures!

Wind Cave National Park Pictures