Black Hills Parks & Forests Association
Between the two cave parks there are ten different ways underground, from a flat 20-minute room to a four-hour crawl. Most visitors pick blind. You do not have to.
The Black Hills hold two of the world’s great caves, and both put you underground only on a ranger-guided tour. This guide sorts the tours by the things that actually decide a good visit: how long, how hard, how many stairs, what you see, and whether it fits kids, knees, and a fear of tight spaces.
Short version: if you want one classic cave walk and no surprises, book the Natural Entrance Tour at Wind Cave or the Scenic Tour at Jewel Cave. If someone in your group cannot do stairs, choose Jewel Cave’s Discovery Tour or Wind Cave’s Accessibility Tour. If you want a hard, muddy adventure, that is the Wild Cave Tour (Wind) or the Wild Caving Tour (Jewel). The full table and the by-situation picks are below.
If you can only fit one, here is the honest breakdown.
You can plan a two-cave day if the tour times and drive fit. The visitor centers connect by US 385 and US 16 through Custer. Book both tours ahead and leave room for wildlife delays and each park’s check-in time. There is more on the two-cave day below.
Times, stair counts, and rules were verified against the National Park Service in July 2026. Every tour is ranger-guided. Confirm the exact schedule when you book, since the parks adjust tours by season.
| Tour | Cave | Time | Stairs & difficulty | Good for | How to book |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Discovery Tour | Jewel | 20 min | Easiest One large chamber by elevator; 15 steps to the lower platform or a step-free upper platform; strollers allowed | Limited mobility, very young kids, low time or energy | recreation.gov |
| Accessibility Tour | Wind | 30 min | No stairs Elevator to a level 100-foot section; wheelchair accessible | Wheelchair users, anyone who cannot do stairs | Phone, 605-745-4600 |
| Garden of Eden Tour | Wind | 1 hr | Moderate 150 stairs, 1/4 mile, elevator in and out | First cave tour, shorter walk, kids who can do stairs | recreation.gov |
| Natural Entrance Tour | Wind | 1 hr 15 min | Moderate 300 stairs, 2/3 mile, exits by elevator | The default first-timer pick at Wind Cave; the famous boxwork | recreation.gov |
| Scenic Tour | Jewel | 1 hr 20 min | Mod. strenuous 734 stairs, 1/2 mile paved loop, elevator in and out | The default first-timer pick at Jewel Cave; the most decorated route | recreation.gov |
| Fairgrounds Tour | Wind | 1 hr 30 min | Strenuous 450 stairs incl. one 89-step flight up, 2/3 mile | Able walkers who want the most cave on a standard tour | recreation.gov |
| Historic Lantern Tour | Jewel | 1 hr 45 min | Strenuous ~600 steep, narrow stairs, lantern-lit, historic entrance | Older kids (8+) and adults who want the 1940s experience | recreation.gov |
| Candlelight Tour | Wind | 2 hr | Strenuous 424 stairs, unlit route by candle bucket, 10 people max | Older kids (8+) and adults who want atmosphere over distance | Phone, 605-745-4600 |
| Wild Cave Tour | Wind | Up to 4 hr | Very strenuous Mostly crawling; fit through 10 in x 3 ft; 6 people max | Fit adventurers 16+, clothes you can ruin | Phone, 605-745-4600 |
| Wild Caving Tour | Jewel | 3 to 4 hr | Extremely strenuous Chimneying, rope climb, belly crawls; 8.5 x 24 in crawl block test | Fit adventurers 16+ who pass the fit test | recreation.gov request, closes 1 week ahead |
Both caves sit in the Mountain time zone, so the tour times you see when booking are Mountain time. Fees run $6 to $16 for walking tours and $45 for the adventure tours; the reservation guide has the full fee table.
For most first-timers the answer is the standard walking tour at whichever cave you visit: the Natural Entrance Tour at Wind Cave or the Scenic Tour at Jewel Cave. Both are the cave’s signature route, both run about an hour and a quarter, both are paved and lit, and both show the formations the cave is famous for without any crawling. The Scenic Tour has more stairs (734 of them) but enters and exits by elevator, so the climbing comes in stretches rather than stacked at one entrance.
If an hour and a quarter and a few hundred stairs sounds like a lot, the Garden of Eden Tour at Wind Cave is the shorter, gentler standard tour at about an hour and 150 stairs, and it samples all of Wind Cave’s formations: boxwork, cave popcorn, and flowstone. It is enough cave for many visitors.
It depends on the kid’s stamina and how they feel about the dark.
All tours are guided, so a ranger is with your group the whole time. Kids 15 and under need an adult along at Jewel Cave. And if the underground is a no-go, both parks run Junior Ranger programs on the surface; Jewel Cave even has a Pee Wee Ranger program for the smallest visitors.
Each cave has a genuine no-stairs option, and they work differently:
Every other tour at both caves involves hundreds of stairs and is not wheelchair accessible. The what-to-expect guide covers the accessibility details, stair counts, and what the parks provide at the surface.
Stay on the developed walking tours and skip the adventure tours entirely. The standard tours at both caves follow wide, paved, lit, railed passages with a ranger and a group, and most people with mild claustrophobia are comfortable on them. The Discovery Tour at Jewel Cave (one open room, 20 minutes) is the least confining option if you want to test the waters first. Avoid the Wild Cave and Wild Caving tours, which involve deliberate crawling through tight, undeveloped passage; Jewel Cave says plainly that anyone with a fear of closed spaces or heights should not attempt its Wild Caving Tour. If tight spaces are a real worry, tell the ranger at the start; they do this every day.
The hardest tour in either cave is an adventure tour: Wind Cave’s Wild Cave Tour (up to four hours, most of it spent crawling on hands and knees) and Jewel Cave’s Wild Caving Tour (3 to 4 hours the park rates extremely strenuous, with chimneying between walls, a rope-assisted climb up a near-vertical wall, and belly crawls through passages with names like the Brain Drain). Both require a minimum age of 16, clothes and boots you are willing to ruin, and $45. At Jewel Cave you must first pass through a concrete crawl block about 8.5 by 24 inches on the visitor center patio; if you cannot fit through the block, you cannot take the tour, and there is no refund.
Is it worth it? If you are reasonably fit, not claustrophobic, and you want to actually cave rather than walk through a cave, yes. It is the closest thing to wild caving you can do with a ranger and no prior experience. If you mainly want to see formations and stay clean, the standard tours show you more decorated passage with far less effort. Each cave books its adventure tour differently; the reservation guide covers exactly how.
Yes, and a lot of people do. The visitor centers connect by US 385 and US 16 through Custer. Check the drive for your travel day and leave room for wildlife delays and each park’s check-in time. Tours can sell out, so book both tours ahead (each park has its own recreation.gov page), leave yourself a comfortable gap between them for the drive and a meal in Custer, and check each park’s schedule the morning of in case a tour time shifts. If you only have energy for one cave plus other Black Hills stops, that is when the “which cave” breakdown at the top earns its keep.
If you are weighing the two and leaning toward only Wind Cave because it is the national park and Jewel is “just” a monument, reconsider. Repeat visitors regularly rate Jewel Cave the more rewarding of the two underground, it is the fifth longest cave in the world with more than 220 miles of mapped passages, and it draws less of a crowd for the same reason it gets less hype. The Scenic Tour is the one to book if you want the cave at its most decorated. Both caves are worth a tour, and if your schedule allows the two-cave day, take it.
Wind Cave holds profound significance to the Lakota people, who understand it as a place of emergence. That story belongs to the Lakota and to the National Park Service interpretation, not to us, so we point you to nps.gov/wica and to the park’s cultural heritage rather than retelling it ourselves. It is worth reading before you visit.
Picked your tour? Here is exactly how to reserve it, and here is what to expect underground, from the 49-degree chill to the shoe rules. For the bigger picture, see the Wind Cave National Park and Jewel Cave National Monument guides, and the story of Jewel Cave passing 200 mapped miles.
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.
