Wind Cave National Park in South Dakota is an amazing place to visit with kids. It is the first cave in the world to become a national park — and it was the sixth U.S. National Park!
The cave isn’t known for dramatic formations, but rather its sacred indigenous history and a cave formation called box work.
Above the surface, Wind Cave is a great place to see bison and prairie dog towns!
Wind Cave National Park with kids is so much fun. Here are our favorite things to do in Wind Cave with kids!
Explore the Visitor Center with kids
Wind Cave has a great visitor center that was so fun for the kids to explore before our tour. There are spots for them to crawl through tight spaces just like cave explorers.
Our toddler loved the displays of prairie dog tunnels, and we all loved the map showing the different cave passages.
Take a cave tour in Wind Cave with kids
You can’t visit Wind Cave without taking a tour! I highly recommend the Natural Entrance Tour. It’s only one hour and 15 minutes, and begins at the cave’s natural entrance. It passes the most amount of boxwork.
I had prepped the kids for the tour, listening to a podcast about Wind Cave, watching the video of the Lakota Emergence Story, and talking a lot about boxwork and how unique it is.
The boys got so excited every time they found boxwork on the tour. They were 5 and 7 and loved the adventure of going into a cave.
Our youngest was 2, and we put her in a baby carrier for the tour. No hiking backpacks are allowed, so it must be a front carrier.
I’ll admit, ages 1-3 are hard for cave tours. Toddlers usually want to run, not be contained, but they don’t understand that they can’t climb on everything they see in a cave. Add in the dark, and cave tour can be tricky.
I emphasized how our daughter would get special snuggles with me while I carried her in the cave. I made up silly songs and asked her to find boxwork. We made it.
See Wind Cave’s natural entrance
If your cave tour doesn’t stop by the natural entrance, be sure to visit it.
The cave gets its name because it “breathes” as air flows in or out based on air pressure.
In Lakota culture, Wind Cave is the site of the Lakota Emergence Story. Listen to the full story here.
Drive the hidden back roads in Wind Cave with kids
Wind Cave isn’t just magical below the surface. Aboveground, herds of bison roam across the prairie. Sometimes they hang out on the main highway that passes through the park. But the best way to see them is to drive the back roads!
From the park Visitor Center, drive North on Highway 87, passing various trails and overlooks. Right at the edge of the park boundary, you’ll turn right onto an unpaved dirt road. Some maps call this Highland Ridge Road. Some call is NPS Road 5.
Drive along the road and enjoy the solitude and quiet, interrupted only by prairie dogs yapping and bison grunting.
Eventually, you’ll reach an intersection with another unpaved road, called Red Valley Road or CSP Road 6. This road travels north to Custer State Park and meets up with the state park’s Wildlife Loop Road at a spot where wild burros like to roam.
We saw dozens of people exit their cars, approach the burros, and feed them. Apparently, it’s a thing. We chose to keep to the “don’t feed wildlife” mantra and looked but didn’t touch.
Become a Junior Ranger at Wind Cave
Before your tour, pick up a Junior Ranger booklet for the kids to complete. After your tour, finish the activities and take the Junior Ranger pledge to get your badge!
Bonus: Mammoth Site (Hot Springs, SD)
South of Wind Cave is another exceptionally awesome place in the Black Hills: The Mammoth Site.
The site is an active dig site with bones from more than 60 mammoths and other creatures. It was likely a sinkhole that trapped Ice Age mammals over many years.
What’s extra special is that some bones are removed from the site, but most stay in place! You can walk around and watch scientists actively working on the site and ask them questions.
The paleontologists were so kind and loved answering the kids’ questions. There are great kids play areas too.
My husband and I stumbled on the Mammoth Site in 2016 and knew we had to bring our paleontology-loving 5-year-old back in 2025. It’s only about 20 minutes south of Wind Cave, in the town of Hot Springs, South Dakota.
Tickets are $11-$13, and kids 3 and under are free. You can purchase several add-on experiences, which we didn’t do. I’m sure they’re fun, but they’re not necessary to have a great time.
Bonus: Visit other Black Hills sites
Your adventure to Wind Cave with kids wouldn’t be complete without exploring the rest of the Black Hills!
Badlands National Park, Mount Rushmore National Memorial, the Crazy Horse Memorial, the Mammoth Site, Devils Tower National Monument, and Custer State Park are all other places you must visit in the Black Hills with kids!
We spent six days in the Black Hills with kids in 2025. It was a wonderful trip that we all still talk about!
All of these spots are within an hour or two from Rapid City, which makes for a great National Parks road trip with kids.
Where to stay near Wind Cave with kids
If you’re visiting several sites in the Black Hills, Rapid City makes a great base camp.
Rapid City is only about one hour from Badlands National Park, one hour from Wind Cave National Park, one hour from our favorite sites in Custer State Park, and 45 minutes from Mount Rushmore.
The last time we visited the Black Hills with kids, we split our lodging.
For first few nights, we stayed at the Residence Inn at WaTiki Water Park in Rapid City. It was our first waterpark experience, and the kids LOVED it!
The last several nights, we stayed in Custer State Park.
If you’re looking for something a little quieter and closer to nature, Custer State Park offers a multitude of lodging options among the lakes, forests, and granite.
We stayed at Legion Lake Lodge in a cabin. It was a lovely spot, with boulders to climb on, a playground, and small beach area.
I hope you have a wonderful trip to the Black Hills with kids!