We were double unlucky with Jewel Cave National Monument. Due to budget cuts, it is open Monday to Saturday, so it was closed when we drove by it on Sunday the 7th. We went back to the visitor center on Tuesday the 9th, knowing that cave tours would not be available, due to “No Cave Tours September 8-12 Due to Generator Installation”.
Nevertheless, we arrived to a very interesting ranger talk about the caves, which is already documented as the 5th longest cave system in the world, even though they estimate based on airflow measurements that less than 5% of the caves have been mapped. Nevertheless, there are already over 220 miles of mapped and surveyed passages.
In addition to the talk, we got to view the official video in the auditorium, as well as view cave-related exhibits in the visitor center.
Had tours been available, they range from general-public-friendly tours, all the way to the “Wild Caving Tour” which is a 3-4 hour tour and “participants must be in good physical condition and are required to pass through an 8-1/2 inch by 24-inch concrete block opening before beginning the tour” – NO THANK YOU.
The qualifying concrete block can be seen her in the upper left side of the picture below
