Things To Do

Cave Tour in the Assembly Room

NPS Photo by Mike Landrum

The Visitor Center open daily except Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Year's Days. The Visitor Center contains three exhibit rooms featuring cave exploration, cave formations, early cave history, the Civilian Conservation Corps, park wildlife, and resource management. An 18-minute movie; Wind Cave: One Park, Two Worlds; is shown throughout the day.

Cave Tours are offered daily throughout the year except Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Year's Day. The cave temperature is 53 degrees at all times of the year. A jacket or sweater and good walking shoes are recommended.

All cave tours leave from the visitor center. Stop in at the visitor center for information, cave tours, exhibits, slide and video programs, maps, books, backcountry permits, Senior and Access Passports, and Annual Park Passes. The visitor center and the cave are accessible to people with disabilities, please inquire at the visitor center.

Wind Cave National Park protects two very different worlds; one deep within the earth, the other a sunlit world of many resources. Exploring any of the 30 miles of hiking trails, one of the three nature trails, or just hiking cross-country gives visitors the opportunity to experience the amazing prairie and forest worlds of the park.

Living within the park are many different types of animals. Driving the park roads or hiking the trails provides the opportunity to see bison, prairie dogs, pronghorn or many of the different birds living here.

The Elk Mountain Campground will be opened with limited services starting May 24, 2013. C Loop will be closed and maintenance of the facilities will be limited due to the 5% across-the-board cut in the park's operating budget .