I've been "over" Wind Cave twice before, driving the park roads and seeing bison and prairie dog towns. On this trip, I was finally going into the cave!

I selected one of the easier tours, which was indeed a good speed for me. Unlike Mammoth Cave (the only other cave I've toured), you do not enter Wind Cave through a natural opening. Rather, an elevator zips you down the equivalent of thirteen stories to a sealed chamber where the actual tour begins.

The room is sealed to minimize outside contamination of the cave, especially by humidity. The cave is classified as "dry" meaning no stalactite and stalagmite formations. There is some humidity in the cave as railings were damp but far less than in other caves.

Once everyone is assembled, the door is opened and we are quickly hastened through to the cave proper. One of the highlights of Wind Cave is the "boxwork" formations in the ceilings. Formed by the little water that seeps in, these fragile designs look like small boxes, hence their name.

During the tour, we had the required lights-out moment to see what complete darkness looks like (it's dark!). This was followed by a demonstration of the candle-powered lanterns early explorers used. I decided cave exploring would not be for me, even with today's more powerful flashlights.

With over 160 miles already explored and mapped, our 1/3 mile tour was barely a scratch on the surface. And yet, cave experts say that we may have explored only 10% of the entire cave.