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Everything You Need to Know to Do the Wind Cave Wild Cave Tour
- Mar 12
- 7 min read
Updated: 5 days ago
What This Is / Why It Matters
Originally, I was supposed to be doing this tour back-to-back with the Jewell Cave Wild Cave Tour. Much to my surprise, the Jewell Cave Wild Cave Tour was the hardest out of the NPS Wild Cave Tours. SO booking this the very next day after just finishing that seems daunting. That being said, I convinced my boyfriend to make a seperate trip back to Wind Cave National Park and do the Wild Cave Tour with me, when we were well rested and not fatigued. I have a goal of doing all of the Wild Cave Tours in the NPS System. For more info of all of those visit my Wild Cave Tours of the National Park System.
What It’s Like
Wind Cave offer a lot of different types of cave tours. You can review all of them and decide which is best for you by checking out my post Wind Cave National Park, which tour is for you? I personally am very adventurous and like Type II fun so I always opt for the most strenuous tours. This also naturally eliminates people who aren't at your skill level from your group. Different from other tours, not only are you not allowed to take a phone or any personal items, even the guide doesn't take your photo. So essentially you'll be photo less unless you bring Meta Glasses, which I would HIGHLY recommend. Other tours I've done like Mammoth Cave Wild Cave Tour and the Jewell Cave Wild Cave Tour the guide either takes your photo for you or allows you to bring personal items like a phone with a camera.
This tour starts by meeting at a gear room and getting fitted with helmets and knee pads. Also unlike other tours I've done, they don't give you overalls, so your clothing will be dirty. You cannot wear the same shoes or clothing you wore in any other cave. This is a general caving rule across most systems. Once fitted, you're escorted to a man-made entrance with an elevator that your guide has a code/key to access. You take the elevator down into the cave and immediately go off the tourist path to the Wild Cave Tour path. This path is not near any other tours other than the Garden of Eden Tour which runs an inner circle on a different level of the cave than the Wild Cave Tour.
What Surprised Me
This tour was rather short compared to the other tours I've done. My group was only 5 people of ample fitness and I noticed our guide sitting around asking if we had questions trying to extend the tour. At one point I started getting chilly from all of the sitting around doing nothing. This was also the easiest Wild Cave Tour out of Mammoth, Jewell and Wind. I easily could've done it the day after Jewell but was so tired and unknowing of the fatigue so I opted out and did this separately but noticed I wasn't fatigued at all after this one. It also has the largest 'tightest squeeze' of all the tours.
Wind Cave Wild Cave Tour Requirements
They Check footwear when you check in at the Visitor's Center and pay your fee. this is your chance for them to elvauate your footwear and decide ifyou can go or not. They will refund you if they veto your shoes even though they say they dont. Also, they say you must have over the ankle shoes with good tread. We tested this by purchasing some over the ankle flat sneakers at walmart. I'd comapre them to Converse shoes. They got vetoed because the tread wasn't aggressive enough even though brand new. We swapped them for hiking shoes with aggressive tred but didn't cover the ankle and they were accepted so tread > ankle support to the rangers and sneaker regardless of ankle support won't be accepted. If you don't have shoes, your best chance to find some hiking boots would be a sporting goods store in Custer or the nearest Walmart which is about 45 minutes to an hour away, so plan accordingly.
Different from other tours, not only are you not allowed to take a phone or any personal items, even the guide doesn't take your photo. You cannot wear the same shoes or clothing you wore in any other cave.
Rooms on the Wind Cave Wild Cave Tour
ere. We got to go through Rome, the Assembly Room and the Muddle Room.
The Muddle Room
The Muddle Room is named after the fact that it muddles all of the routes together and you can easily go the wrong way and a node to the Model Room. Our Guide tested our route finding skills by asking us which was we thought to go in this room. There is white and blue tape indicating the emergency access route and the tour route so the guides don't get lost. It was discovered by famed cavers Jon and Herb Conn in 1963.
The Rome Room
This room, although first discovered in 1891, was eventually to be the key to getting into the vast western parts of Wind Cave. It was from this area that Herb and Jan Conn and Dave Schnute noticed that all the passages that left this room eventually returned to it, thus "all roads lead to Rome". Discovered on 07/04/1891 by Alvin McDonald, M.E. Crookam, Willie Crookam, & G.W. Lee.
The Assembly Room
Discovered 10/25/1890 by Alvin McDonald, F.L. McAdam, Robert McAdam. Discovered by Alvin and Elmer McDonald and Melvin Moore on January 12, 1891. Meetings held in this room during the early history caused the room to be called GAR Hall, for the Grand Army of the Republic. Before that, Alvin McDonald named the room, Fallen Flats, because of the large, flat breakdown on the floor.
Garden of Eden
Also discovered by Alvin McDonald in July of 1891, early visitors used magnesium lights to view the spectacular effect of frostwork fringed boxwork and popcorn in this room. This room has it's own tour which is short and required over 150-stairs. It is 1-hour and costs $15 for adults, $8 for kids 6-15 year old and seniors 62+.
Early Explorers of Wind Cave
The first explorers of the cave are noted back to 1890 as:
Alvin McDonald (participated in most early expeditions)
F.L. McAdam
Robert McAdam
J.D. McDonald
Robert B. Moss
T.L. McAdam
Professor Elke
Historic Exploration Routes in Wind Cave
Alvin McDonald's Castle Garden Route
"About 9 o'clock Y.X.J. and I started to the Chamber of Bells for a load of geodes, mostly small to medium. The Chamber of Bells is the room in which the left arm of the route Branches. In the first room the other side of the Chamber of Bells Y.X.J found a crevice leading to the South east. I went in as far as my piece of candle would permit and not only found a beautiful little room but found that the passage had good indications of being extensive. I went in the new place about 200 feet as near as I could judge. The specimens were mostly box work."
The High Route
January 17th, At 9:45 A.M. my father, my smaller brother & I started to Grand View after frost work. At the east end of the Diamond Mine I found a passage leading to the main circle near the Recovered Paradise, by making this discovery I am now enabled to make a complete circle around "Grand View". I also discovered a passage leading from the "White Rose Chamber" but I did not have time to explore it to my satisfaction for we had no more than enough lights to last us to the entrance.
Crystal Route
February 14th, I been was very busy for the last 8 weeks improving the Sampson's Route & had no time to explore. While blasting in the north Dressing Room yesterday I opened a hole that seemed very deep because as I could not hear a stone strike bottom for quite a while a long time after I threw it down. There is a strong current of air going down it. My curiosity was excited & this morning I & 3 companions took over 100 feet of rope & explored it. I went down first and found a water work channel leading north west on the main crevice & found it to be very pretty but difficult to explore on account of small holes.
If you're an absolute dork like me you can view this list of Wind Cave Rooms which features dates, names and deceased routes like Alvin McDonald's Castle Garden Route. Additionally, you can read Alvin's Journal for yourself at the National Parks Website.
If you'd like a full history of Wind Cave, Visit my
Who This Is For / Not For
Good fit if you:
Have done other Cave tours and want more
Are comfortable crawling and tight spaces
Want a realistic introduction to caving
Not a good fit if you:
Are claustrophobic
Have knee, shoulder, or back limitations
Expect frequent stops or photo opportunities
📃If you’re trying to decide which tour to book, check out my guide to the Best Wind Cave Tours: Which One Should You Choose?
Final Thought
The Wild Cave Tour is about experiencing caving in and of itself. It’s challenging, controlled, and deliberately uncomfortable, and that’s exactly the point. It's the easiest of the three Wild Cave Tours I did in the NPS System so far. Not being able to take photos and the guide not taking them for you was a bummer.
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