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Southwestern South Dakota

More lousy lantern light shots.

At last, we've arrived at our final destination, the Dungeon Room. We've reached the end of the cave passage we've been crawling through for a better part of an hour. The guide has us all blow out our lanterns and we sit in the light of his lantern while he talks more about the cave. I get to wondering, could I find my way out of the cave in the dark, having traversed about 1 mile and descended more than 300 feet? Yeah, right. I'd be a dead man. Before the guide extinguishes his lantern to show us the total darkness of the cave, I ask him if he checked to make sure he brought his lighter. He did, much to my relief.

More calcite crystalline structures that are lining the roof of the Dungeon Room.

Parting shot of the Dungeon Room. Certainly a thing of childhood nightmares. On my way out of the cave I don't bother taking any more pictures. I just enjoy my adventure of crawling back out to the surface.

I have to admit, I'm a bit jaded when it comes to exploring caves. When I was a kid my family and I took a road trip to Arizona and on the way we toured Carlsbad Caverns in New Mexico. To but it bluntly, Jewel Cave looks pretty tarnished compared to Carlsbad. But in all fairness, Jewel Cave certainly has its jewels with all the calcium calcite we encountered. I rate my Lantern Tour of Jewel Cave a 4 thumbs-up out of a possible 5 thumbs.