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Wind Cave Tours To Resume With Upgraded Elevator

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Compiled from NPS releases

Published Date

February 1, 2025

With elevator replacements completed, cave tours at Wind Cave National Park have resumed/NPS

If you like to explore the underbelly of the National Park System, you can now do that at Wind Cave National Park in South Dakota, where work to upgrade the elevator system that drops you down into the cave has been completed.

Cave tours resumed this past Tuesday following a year-long project to replace the park's two elevators. During the work, begun last January, both elevator cabs were replaced, improvements were made to the shaft, and a new lift system was installed.

"We’re very pleased with the completion of this project,” said acting Superintendent Milton Haar. “It’s been a long wait since we stopped tours last May, and we are looking forward to resuming tours through the world’s seventh-longest cave.”

Tours of the Garden of Eden are offered at 10 a.m., with tours of the Fairgrounds beginning at 1 p.m. The Garden tour has 150 stairs and lasts one hour. The Fairground tour has 450 stairs and lasts about 90 minutes. Tickets can be reserved up to three days in advance by visiting recreation.gov. As visitation ramps up, more tours will be offered.

The visitor center is open daily from 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. with new exhibits and the park store run by the Black Hills Parks and Forests Association.

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