Today was a slow day. It is our last full day at Crooked Creek Resort. I have a phone meeting at 12 so we decide to do the laundry during the phone meeting and do some touring to the north.
Early in the afternoon we left for Thunderhead Underground Falls. Mackensie had selected this as a place she'd like to visit. Driving to Thunderhead Falls was a beautiful drive. It took a little less than an hour.
Thunderhead Underground Falls is an old hard rock mine dug in the 1800s in search of gold. The mine was dug using drills and black powder (pre-dating dynamite). The mine goes straight back for about 200 feet before it reaches a thundering water fall. The water fall was created when the miners blasted through to an underground water way. That was the end of the mine. A 100 years later it was turned into a tourist attraction.
Mackensie looked at the map again and decided that Black Hills Cavern sounded fun. She likes the caves. We drove a few more minutes up the road to Black Hills Cavern. We took the Adventure Tour which means we get to see more of the cave than just the regular tour.
The tour is a little over an hour. Our tour guide looks like a local high school student probably using the cavern for a summer job. The cavern has some interesting formations with lots of quartz. I guess gem stone and crystal sound better than quartz. :-)
After the tour we drove back to the camp site and had an early dinner. We got the trailer all setup to leave early in the morning. We have a long drive tomorrow all the way across South Dakota to De Smet, South Dakota.
Why De Smet? Tune in tomorrow and to find out what is the significance of De Smet.
