Jewel Cave National Monument will resume cave tours on Feb. 3 after completing major renovations of the cave’s elevator and Scenic Tour route.
The limestone cave in the southern Black Hills formed an estimated 360 million years ago, though evidence for human knowledge of the cave is only a little older than the span of a single human life — 122 years. The cave’s long geologic history could make the nearly four-year patchwork availability of tours seem minuscule, but the return is highly anticipated.
February is typically a slow season for Jewel Cave tours, but Chief Interpretation Officer Aimee Murillo says the sooner tours return, the better. She is new to Jewel Cave, having taken over the job this past October. She said veteran volunteers on a recent walk-through were astounded at how different the cave looks with the additional safety features.
In the early 2010s, there were several accidents on the Scenic Tour that underscored the need for safety upgrades. Murillo says the renovation was a huge undertaking. Workers added a concrete lip to the path in the cave and tightened up distances between cables and paths, to encourage folks to stay on the path and avoid an accidental slip.
As the Scenic Tour project completed in 2020, the elevator restoration began. The Jewel Cave staff modified tours to avoid the cave, taking advantage of the surface trails. But by this past October, still without a working elevator and with snow beginning to fall, tours ceased for the season.
Tour reopening was considered for the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday weekend earlier this month, but there was another consideration before reopening the over 200-mile underground cave: disease, and not just COVID-19.
“We do have white nose syndrome in the cave in our bats,” Murillo says. “It doesn't impact humans. It's a disease that impacts bats, but everyone does need to walk across a bio-cleaning station after they've gone in the cave to make sure they're not tracking that fungus to any other bats or to any other caves or places, so it felt like we were still a little short-staffed and had a few loose ends to tie, and we thought, well, let me try maybe for February.”
The state of South Dakota is currently experiencing its highest number of COVID-19 cases since the respiratory pandemic started to infect people here in 2020. Although the state does not have a mask mandate, the National Park Service requires staff and guests to wear masks while indoors. Jewel Cave staff do not currently have plans to limit capacity, because February typically attracts low numbers of visitors.
Air flows through the cave in response to barometric pressure, causing it to “breathe” much like nearby Wind Cave. Despite the natural circulation of air, Murillo says visitors are still in close proximity to each other on the tour, and masking is essential. Risk assessment will be ongoing, especially as visitors increase nearing the summer months when all four tour offerings are anticipated to be available to guests.
“I think we'll just kind of see what everyone's comfort level is and how things are looking,” Murillo says. “I'm hoping this current wave will start to be going down as we're leading into giving tours, but if it doesn't seem safe for us and our staff, then something’s got to give for sure.”
Jewel Cave National Monument is currently operating on its abbreviated winter schedule. Information about tour reservation ahead of the Feb. 3 offerings can be found at recreation.gov.