We had no further issues with the wind this morning and made it to the Mammoth Site for opening. This was lucky since three buses of excited school children arrived for a field trip a half hour later (cue screaming). The Mammoth Site is one of the largest ice age fossil finds in the USA. The now extinct animals here - the Colombian mammoth, the woolly mammoth, the giant short-faced bear - are similar to those preserved in the La Brea tar pits in California. The site is neat because many of the fossils have been left partially excavated so you can see how they are positioned in the ground. The site (now a hill) was originally a sinkhole (yes, karst landscape strikes again!) filled with rainwater that acted as a natural trap. When animals went there to bathe, eat and drink, they got caught on the slippery shale sides and could not climb back out of the sinkhole. They drowned and over millennia were fossilized. The area around the sinkhole eventually eroded away leaving the bone-filled water (now stone) as a hill - geology is a crazy thing. There are over 60 mammoths buried in this pit/hill. It was mammoth tusk mania!
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| This is a Columbian mammoth - biggest and not woolly. |
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| Mammoth femur |
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| (So many) mammoth tusks |
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| Mammoth tooth |
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| Giant short-faced bear |
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| Mammoth skull and tusks |
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| Most complete mammoth skeleton |
Our afternoon was spent chilling with the bison and prairie dogs and then exploring the wonders of the fancy boxwork formations in Wind Cave on their guided Natural Entrance Tour. I was chosen to be the “caboose” (last person in the tour group) so I had lots of time to take photos of the boxwork calcite minerals fins that this cave is known for.
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| The boys worked through the Junior Ranger program here too! |
I think we once again have the most beautiful site in the park’s Elk Mountain campground. We are in for a relaxing evening before heading out to another busy day tomorrow as we head towards the badlands.
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