• Wind Cave National Park - Two Worlds

    Wind Cave

    National Park South Dakota

There are park alerts in effect.
show Alerts »

  • Elk Mountain Campground Closed

    The Elk Mountain Campground is closed and will remain closed through the summer of 2013 due to across the board budget cuts.

Ballot Box Discovery

1st Trip: On 11/11/2000, Evan Anderson led Derek Wolfe and Shawn Kramer to the Bucking Horse Canyon area in the Half Mile Hall Section, where they discovered the Ballot Box area.

Trip Report: The KP Pit is the only way that I know to get into Bucking Horse Canyon and it is over 100-feet deep and exposed at the top. Surveying into a nearby virgin walking passage, we named several new areas, including the Campaign Trail, Battle of the Bulge, and Split Vote. We also named a 20 x 40-foot room the Ballot Box and a large balcony, the Gore Hole. All the names were in reference to the on-going

Florida presidential election contest. We surveyed 1,203 feet, leaving numerous great leads in an exciting new area. While surveying a bellycrawl, Derek had a false floor break and he fell eight feet, but was OK. We name it the Kamikaze Crawl. We surveyed 1,203 feet, leaving much to do.

2nd Trip: On 1/13/2001, Evan Anderson led Steph Haderlie, Pat Roberson, and Steve Lester back to the Ballot Box area.

Trip Report: Our first lead was along the red/white trail on the west side. We tied into the KKL survey. We then surveyed a pit lead that I had found previously. It tied into the KKL survey again. We surveyed 1,680 feet.

3rd Trip: On 4/14/2001, Evan Anderson led Tonya Potts and Paul Mozal back to the Ballot Box area.

Trip Report: Began surveying where we left off last trip. Tied into CT8. Found west going leads that popped into the BV survey. Surveyed some mop-up around Bucking Horse Canyon. We surveyed 1,020 feet.

Click here to return to Caving Narratives.

Did You Know?

American bison on the Wind Cave National Park prairie

The American bison is the largest terrestrial mammal in North America.  Male bison can weigh a ton and can run 35 miles per hour.  Do not approach bison.  They weigh more and can outrun you. More...