Hub Loop
This was my second trip to Jewel cave in South Dakota my first being 3 years ago with a toddler and a baby. This time the trip ventured off the tour route and required actual caving (with help from an elevator). Our group consisted of members of the Paha Sapa Grotto and a trip leader (this person knows where to go). We met in the basement of the visitor center to ready our gear, talk about safety and call our surface contact. Jewel Cave has a large amount of manganese oxide (dark gray mineral) that covers the cave floor in many passages. This manganese gets all over your clothing and gear and care must be taken to prevent the spread of it. So we brought extra shoes to stash along the tour trail.
We boarded the elevator and traveled down to the lower level of the cave. We followed the tour route for a very short distance over metal bridges and up and down stairs to a stair case. We stashed our shoes out of sight and crawled under the stairs into a small passage. We began following a trail marked with blue flagging tape Which would take us to the Hub loop marked with orange tape. We kept a quick pace only stopping occasionally for a water and photo break. Our trip leader and other group members had great stories and interpretations for each stop.
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| Manganese deposits on floor |
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| rare speleothems whose origin is not determined |
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| walking passage |
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| Gypsum spiders |
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| gypsum spiders |
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| explorers checking out an old carbide dump on top of some breakdown |
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| traveling across breakdown |
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| These guys are getting a closeup of a vug lined with clear dogtooth spar |
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| So you can find those spiders |
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| Gypsum spiders |
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| Breccia paleofill |
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| Photo break to see some dogtooth calcite spar and paleofill |
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| I have a light coating of manganese all over me. |
