After completing the loops in the Badlands we drove through Custer State park which is in the southern part of the Black Hills. Custer State Park is comprised of high alpine forest. It has very steep walls and thin fins of rock that make up the canyon walls.

Next stop was the Wind Cave National Park. This system is 135 miles of caves all layered about 500' under the surface. The caves were discovered in the 1800's. Indians believe this is where thier race began. The cave was very narrow, and had 'Boxwork" which looked like spiderweb filled honeycombs on all of the walls and cealings. This cave is a dry cave formed by standing water as opposed to moving or seeping water. These formations looked extremely delicate some as fine as lace but the material was as hard as bone. We learned all of this information on our own because our tour guide was absolutly horrible. We choose to take the caboose of the tour just so we didn't have to listen to her horrific presentation skills. In her defense it was her first day, but not as a presenter nor a tour guide.

At the end of the tour we were waiting in the airlock for our guide and the elevator to come back down. I said to the remaining 20 guests in the room

"As an educator, I appologize."

The collective laughter in the room told us we were not the only ones that felt that way about the tour.