News Release

Wind Cave National Park resumes cave tours

Wind Cave is resuming tours March 20 following elevator repairs and instituting Covid safety measures. Visitors will be able to view boxwork, a rare cave formation, on tours.

NPS Photo

News Release Date: March 19, 2021

Contact: Tom Farrell, 605-745-1130

WIND CAVE NATIONAL PARK, S.D. – Tours of Wind Cave will resume March 20 after a long closure due to extensive repair work on the elevators and the pandemic.

To provide for the safety of visitors and staff, tour sizes will be limited by fifty percent to allow for social distancing in the cave. Masks will also be required in the visitor center, while in the cave, and outside if people are closer than six feet.

Tours of the seventh-longest cave in the world will be offered at 10 a.m., 1 p.m. and 3 p.m. this spring, with an expanded schedule as summer approaches. To avoid disturbing hibernating bats in the cave’s Walk-In Entrance, all tours initially will enter and exit the cave via elevator.

Tickets are first come, first served on the day of the tour. Visitors are encouraged to arrive early to purchase tickets because of the limited number of spaces available. The cave is a constant 54 degrees. A light sweater or jacket is recommended, as are good walking shoes.

White-nose syndrome (WNS) was detected in South Dakota (Custer County) in 2018 and confirmed in Wind Cave earlier this month. To help protect bats from WNS, it is important that you decontaminate your caving and hiking gear and boots after visiting any cave, or use gear that has never been used in WNS-affected areas. All cave tour participants will be required to walk across a mat containing hydrogen peroxide to kill any fungus on their shoes that could inadvertently spread WNS to other areas. Visit www.whitenosesyndrome.org for more information.

Wind Cave is world famous for a calcite cave formation called boxwork which is seen along all its tour routes. Wind Cave has more boxwork than all the rest of the world’s caves combined. For more information about tours and the cave, visit the park’s website at www.nps.gov/wica.