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Spiro, my sister's best friend from high school has been a park ranger at both caves. If you'd like, I can message her for advice.

We all worked at Lewis & Clark Caverns in MT as tour guides during summer breaks when we were in college. I haven't been to Wind or Jewell, but she's worked at both.

kureiff,
Sure, see what they can tell you. Specifically the "wild cave tours" See if one is better than the other. These are normally very limited and somewhat hard to get tickets for. I've done them in Carlsbad and in Mammoth Caves. Carlsbad only allows 8 people per week. I think Jewel and Wind allow 6 per day(but only during the summer months).

I sent her a message. She's currently a ranger at Wind Cave. But she worked at Jewel a couple years ago.

Awesome!! Look forward to hearing from her. I would really like to do both of them, but I don't think I can talk my wife or daughter into doing either of them. I don't want them to have to wait on me for 4 or 5 hours(more than once--lol). Thanks

This is my friend's response:

"As far as Wild Cave Tours is depends on a few things... If they have NEVER caved before and it's something they are hesitant on doing Wind Cave's is easier. The tightest spot is ten inches high but you are on your back sliding down and someone is guiding you. You get to see a lot of pretty formations (no stalactites or stalagmites) and also some neat historic things from the late 1800s. For that tour you are required to wear long pants (no holes in them, pref jeans or carharts), long sleeve shirt (willing to get ripped) and sturdy shoes (hiking boots.) Also gloves but if they don't have them WICA will provide them.

As far as Jewel it is definetly a much more streneous tour. It involves more tight squeezes and climbing. You are actually made to climb through a 8 1/2 x 24 in block before being allowed on. You get to see very rare cave formations like hydromagnesite balloons (think, crystal like bubbles that inflate and deflate but they're cave formations.) With this tour you need to bring the same things except for you must also provide your own knee pads on this one. You will get convered in maganese and it will NEVER come out of your clothes, black sticky dirt/tar like texture. This tour is definetley for the more adventurous type.

Both amazing but it also depends on a few things. WICA only offers Wild Cave tours strictly in the summer (every day) JECA offers them a few times every month in the winter and four days a week in the summer. Also if you plan on doing both you can NOT wear the clothes you wore in Jewel Cave into Wind Cave BUT you CAN wear the clothes from Wind Cave into Jewel Cave."

I think Jewel sounds pretty great!

Kueriff,

I think it will be Jewel for me. The balloon description sounds cool. I am suprised they let you wear clothes into Jewel coming from Wind. It's a major no no right now. Mainly for bat protection, so I guess there aren't any bats at Jewel. It's a big problem on the east coast caves.

The rules at Carlsbad and Mammoth are very similar to what is described. They offer two wild cave tours at Carlsbad. Strangely, you can't wear the same clothes on those two tours in Carlsbad(the caves area about 1 mile apart). The Carlsbad caves are pretty unique and very pretty. They are a bit strenuous. The Mammoth wild cave tour is more strenuous, but that cave is well--ugly. The thing about Mammoth is that is has a lot of history and is huge huge huge.

Don't know if you have ever done anything like this, but it's really awesome experience. It's a very small group(5-8 people) and then 2 rangers.

Thanks for going out of your way for this info.