Black Hills Parks & Forests Association
The prairie above Wind Cave is free and open all day. The world underneath it, and the crystal maze under Jewel Cave, you can only enter on a ranger-led tour. Here is exactly how the tickets work in 2026.
The two cave parks of the Black Hills, Wind Cave National Park and Jewel Cave National Monument, only let you underground with a ranger, and in summer those tours fill up. The booking rules changed in recent years, and a lot of older advice (“just call for a slot”) is now wrong.
Here is how reservations actually work in 2026, checked against the National Park Service and recreation.gov this month. The quick version: standard tours at both caves are booked online at recreation.gov. The harder adventure tours use a separate process at each cave. Book ahead for summer, and double-check the day’s tour schedule on the park’s own page before you drive out.
For the standard walking tours at either cave, you reserve online at recreation.gov and pay when you book. You do not call the park to book a standard tour anymore. Each park has its own booking page, window, and same-day rules:
Wind Cave’s three standard walking tours are the Garden of Eden Tour, the Natural Entrance Tour, and the Fairgrounds Tour. All three are reserved at recreation.gov.
Wind Cave is in the Mountain time zone, so the reservation and tour times you see are Mountain time. And bring a card: tour tickets at both caves are credit, debit, or digital payment only, no cash.
Jewel Cave’s tours are the Scenic Tour (the signature half-mile route), the Discovery Tour (a short, gentle introduction), the Historic Lantern Tour (summer, lantern-lit), and the Wild Caving Tour (the adventure tour, covered below). The Scenic, Discovery, and Historic Lantern tours are reserved at recreation.gov.
Jewel Cave is also in the Mountain time zone.
The advance window is the part people most often get wrong:
The National Park Service does not publish a fixed daily “drop time” for either cave, so do not count on a specific midnight release. Summer tickets can appear and get claimed across several days, so the reliable strategy is to check recreation.gov over a few days once your date is inside the window rather than waiting for a single moment. If you miss the advance window at Wind Cave, the same-day first-come tickets are your backup.
These are the crawling, get-muddy adventure tours, and each cave handles them differently. Neither one books like a standard tour.
Booked by phone, not on recreation.gov. Call the park at 605-745-4600 up to one month in advance; reservation calls are taken during visitor center hours starting at 8:30 am Mountain time. The tour runs in summer, lasts up to about 4 hours, costs $45, and is limited to 6 people. The minimum age is 16 with a signed parent permission slip, and you will need to fit through a crawl space 10 inches tall by 3 feet wide. Wear clothes and sturdy boots you do not mind ruining. One more rule: you cannot do the Wild Cave and Candlelight tours on the same day.
Requested through recreation.gov, with extra steps. You complete a Reservation Request Form on the Jewel Cave tours page, and the booking window closes one week before the tour (earlier if it fills). Tours run late May through the end of August, when staff trained for this specific tour are available, and each tour takes 2 to 5 people. It lasts 3 to 4 hours, costs $45, and the park calls it extremely strenuous.
The famous gate: before the tour, every participant must pass through a concrete crawl block about 8.5 by 24 inches on the visitor center patio. If you cannot get through the block, you cannot take the tour, and there is no refund. The minimum age is 16 with proof of age; a parent or legal guardian signs a waiver on the day of the tour for any 16 or 17 year old and must stay on site during the tour.
These are the atmospheric, low-light summer tours, and they do not share a booking path.
Fees are per person and current as of July 2026. At Wind Cave, seniors 62 and up and children 6 to 15 pay half price on the standard tours, and children 5 and under are free. At Jewel Cave, youth rates are shown below and children 5 and under are free on the Discovery and Scenic tours (the park recommends the Discovery Tour for little ones). Confirm the exact price when you book, since fees can change with the season.
| Tour | Cave | Adult | Reduced | Minimum age |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Garden of Eden Tour | Wind Cave | $14 | $7 seniors 62+ and ages 6 to 15 | None; under 6 free |
| Natural Entrance Tour | Wind Cave | $16 | $8 seniors 62+ and ages 6 to 15 | None; under 6 free |
| Fairgrounds Tour | Wind Cave | $16 | $8 seniors 62+ and ages 6 to 15 | None; under 6 free |
| Candlelight Tour | Wind Cave | $16 | None | 8 |
| Wild Cave Tour | Wind Cave | $45 | None | 16, signed permission slip |
| Accessibility Tour | Wind Cave | $6 | $3 seniors 62+ and ages 6 to 15 | None; under 6 free |
| Discovery Tour | Jewel Cave | $6 | $3 ages 6 to 15 and seniors 62+ | None; under 6 free |
| Scenic Tour | Jewel Cave | $16 | $8 ages 6 to 15 | None; under 6 free |
| Historic Lantern Tour | Jewel Cave | $16 | $8 ages 8 to 15 | 8 |
| Wild Caving Tour | Jewel Cave | $45 | None | 16, proof of age + waiver |
Two payment notes: both parks are cashless for tour tickets (credit, debit, or digital payment only), and an America the Beautiful pass or any other park pass does not cover cave tour fees. The tour ticket is always separate.
Both caves run tours year-round, but which tours run, and whether the elevators and specific routes are working, can change day to day. Rather than trust a fixed answer, check the live sources before you go:
Context for the “is it open?” worry: Wind Cave reaches its lower levels by elevator, which is occasionally out for maintenance and can pause or reroute some tours. Jewel Cave finished its 2023 historic-area and elevator work and runs a normal seasonal schedule. And Black Hills wildfire smoke can prompt a short, safety-driven closure now and then. All of it gets posted on the park alerts pages, so a quick check the morning of your visit is the reliable move. For temperatures, stair counts, and what the tours are actually like underground, see what to expect on a Black Hills cave tour.
Plan on it. Summer is already the peak season for both caves, and 2026 brings extra travel to the Black Hills around the America 250 commemoration, especially near the July 4 holiday. The first full week of August is Sturgis Rally week, which fills lodging and roads across the region. The takeaway is simple: if your trip is in summer 2026, reserve your cave tours as early as your window allows rather than counting on same-day tickets.
That is its own question, and it deserves a real answer instead of a coin flip. Our companion guide compares every tour at both caves by time, stairs, difficulty, kids, and mobility: Which Black Hills cave tour is right for you. And before you go, read what to expect underground for the temperature, the shoe rules, and the accessibility options at each cave.
Not sure which tour to book? Start with which cave tour is right for you, then read what to expect underground. For the bigger picture at each park, see the Wind Cave National Park and Jewel Cave National Monument guides, our Wind Cave tour planning page, and the story of Jewel Cave’s 200-mile milestone.
Black Hills Parks & Forests Association is the nonprofit cooperating association at Wind Cave National Park and Jewel Cave National Monument. The visitor center bookstores, the online shop, and membership fund interpretation, education, and Junior Ranger programs at both parks. You can also donate or volunteer.
