Wind Cave National Park

A shuffling of money has enabled Wind Cave National Park officials to reopen the Elk Mountain Campground for the summer.

Airborne cowboys have herded hundreds of elk from Wind Cave National Park in South Dakota into neigboring Custer State Park under a plan to both reduce the elk population in the national park while boosting it in the state park.

Closed campgrounds, Sunday closures of National Park System units, and 900 permanent positions that will go unfilled are just some of the latest details of how the National Park Service is responding to the ongoing federal budget sequestration.

Programs for exploring nature with children and discovering the park’s backcountry will be offered this winter and spring at Wind Cave National Park.

Winter driving in Wind Cave National Park can be troublesome for inattentive drivers due to short hours of daylight, snowy weather, and bison drawn to the roads by salt used to melt snow and ice.

The classic picture of an owl is typically one associated with Halloween: large, nocturnal creatures with wide eyes and a wise mind. With Halloween here, it’s the perfect time to take a look into a lesser-known owl species that can be found in some national parks: the Burrowing Owl.

Fall is, in many people's eyes, the best season to enjoy the National Park System. Temperatures are moderating, insects are a thing of the past, forests wrap themselves in dazzling colors, and wildlife is easy to see and often vocal. Here are ten great fall destinations in the park system.

You can add Wind Cave National Park to the growing number of parks that are instituting fire restrictions due to the extreme fire conditions that are popping up across the country.

A day-long celebration, complete with chuck wagon dinner and an appearance by President Theodore Roosevelt, is planned to celebrate the addition of more than 5,500 acres to Wind Cave National Park.

Just because "cave" is part of Wind Cave National Park's name, that doesn't mean the only thing you can do at this South Dakota destination is go underground.

Elk antlers wind up in art, are ground into perceived aphrodisiacs, and grace fireplaces. But they're also illegal to collect in national parks, as three Minnesotans found out when they were busted last weekend in Wind Cave National Park.

Not even elk at Wind Cave National Park can escape the eye in the sky these days.

While underground lakes at Wind Cave National Park test high for arsenic levels, they have no bearing on the safety of the park's drinking water, according to studies

Most national park boundaries are fairly static, not growing or shrinking over the years. But Wind Cave National Park is growing by more than 5,500 acres thanks to an acquisition arranged by The Conservation Fund, and now park officials are working on a plan to manage that addition.

A reward fund has been established for information leading to the arrest and conviction of those responsible for the poaching of two bull elk at Wind Cave National Park.

A $1,000 reward is being offered for information leading to the arrest and conviction of the individual responsible for shooting two elk in Wind Cave National Park.

If you find yourself in South Dakota during the long Martin Luther King, Jr., holiday weekend, swing by Wind Cave National Park to take one of the free cave tours being offered then.

Winter is no reason to ignore the national parks, and at Wind Cave National Park this winter and into the spring months they're offering special programs to help you and your kids enjoy the backcountry.

Do you live in South Dakota, or are you planning a trip there in mid-December? If so, stop by Wind Cave National Park, either to take part in the park's Christmas Bird Count or to enjoy the holiday open house.

Winter, with its lack of crowds in most parks, can be a great season for a visit ... with a caveat. While the need to use caution on snowy and icy highways should be obvious, another potential hazard may not be on your mental radar during a winter drive: wildlife on the roadway.

Nearly 50 years after it was completed, the Leopold Report on wildlife management in the national parks is perhaps overdue for revisions to take into account the realities of climate change, sprawl, and greater visitation to the parks.

Rolling landscape and some history have been added to Wind Cave National Park through the acquisition of a 5,555-acre ranch made available to the National Park Service by The Conservation Fund.

When emergencies occur, Americans take it for granted that trained help will arrived promptly. That doesn't happen by chance, however, and a recent training session will help prepare emergency responders in case things go wrong in some of the most challenging locations on earth: caves.

Earlier this year we ran a story by former Park Service historian Richard West Sellars that examined how fully the National Park Service at Fort Laramie National Historic Site recounts the history of the 19th Century Indian Wars. The following article from Robert Pahre takes a broader look at how the National Park Service interprets Native American history.

Rainy weather, and problems at nearby Jewel Cave National Monument, are being pointed to as the reason for the largest visitor turnout at Wind Cave National Park in South Dakota since August 10, 1975.

Earlier this week we had a spirited discussion of whether the National Park Service needs to add a site to honor Cesar Chavez, who orchestrated the farm labor movement in the 1960s. That discussion nips at a larger question: Has Congress led the Park Service astray and turned it into a catchall agency?

As long as the weather allows, crews will head into Wind Cave National Park on Thursday and Friday if necessary to round up 35 elk and fit them with radio collars so their movements can be monitored.

Youngsters -- ages 3 to 10 -- are the target audience for a series of nature programs being offered this winter at Wind Cave National Park.

It looks somewhat like a dusting of confectioner's sugar, but the white coating that is showing up on more and more noses and wings of bats is the signature of a dire fungal disease that threatens to decimate bat colonies across the country.

Another dozen black-footed ferrets now call Wind Cave National Park in South Dakota home, the result of plague preventing their release elsewhere in the West.