Out in the parks
Join Black Hills National Forest staff for an evening hike along the Reuter Springs Trail to see how the Forest grows its next generation of trees. Forestry Technician Jed Burgers will walk you through the tools and techniques used to collect cones from native ponderosa pine and explain how those seeds become the seedlings that […]
Spend a Saturday evening singing by the water at Bismark Lake, a small lake tucked into the pines just east of Custer. Sally Svenson, the Songbird of the Black Hills, brings her music to the Bismark Lake Day-Use Area for a campfire sing-along of original songs and the Black Hills stories behind them. Music starts […]
Meet Bark the Beaver in Rapid City. Bark is a real kind of Black Hills hero: a beaver who, after a road-painting truck leaves her with two yellow stripes, gets relocated up Willow Creek and rebuilds a wetland that brings the whole creek back to life, trout, deer, wildflowers, and all. Her story is now […]
Travel back to a time when lanterns lit the way and word of mouth spread the wonder, and the story of Wind Cave was just beginning. Ranger Elizabeth traces how a little-known opening in the prairie became one of the country’s first national parks.About the Wind Cave evening programs: These free programs are presented by […]
National Grasslands Visitor Center staff will be presenting interpretive programs every other Monday at Badlands National Park’s Cedar Pass Amphitheater throughout the summer.
The dead grasses, fallen trees, and animal remains scattered across the prairie are easy to overlook, but they are quietly keeping the whole ecosystem alive. Join Ranger Liz to discover the overlooked role that death plays in the living prairie.About the Wind Cave evening programs: These free programs are presented by National Park Service rangers […]
Generations of people have called this stretch of prairie and cave country home. Join Ranger Madelyn to walk through a single day in the lives of those who came before, and see how their stories still shape Wind Cave today.About the Wind Cave evening programs: These free programs are presented by National Park Service rangers […]
The prairie above is only half the story. Beneath it, bats and tiny microorganisms survive in the dark passages of one of the world’s longest caves. Join Ranger Payden to uncover the hidden lives that endure belowground at Wind Cave.About the Wind Cave evening programs: These free programs are presented by National Park Service rangers […]
Bison once nearly vanished from these grasslands, and bringing them back took decades of determined work. Join Ranger Alex for the story of the fall and rise of the Wind Cave bison herd, and how big efforts make big changes.About the Wind Cave evening programs: These free programs are presented by National Park Service rangers […]
Join Ranger Coral to hear Lakota star knowledge stories shared by the National Park Service and learn why Wind Cave is regarded as a sacred place. As the prairie sky darkens over the amphitheater, the connections between the land above and the cave below come into view.About the Wind Cave evening programs: These free programs […]
Celebrate the Fourth of July with the Black Hills’ own fireworks: birds. Nature’s Fireworks explores the roles birds play in a healthy forest, from pollinating plants to helping control disease, and why they are as essential as they are beautiful.Stop by during either session, from 10 a.m. to noon or from 1 to 4 p.m., […]
The history of Wind Cave was shaped by women geologists, explorers, and rangers whose names are too often left out of the telling. Join Ranger Frannie to meet the women of Wind Cave National Park.About the Wind Cave evening programs: These free programs are presented by National Park Service rangers at the Elk Mountain Campground […]
