Beautiful Rushmore Cave

Keystone, South Dakota

You'd have to be a commendably focused, safety-first, eyes-forward driver to enter the Mount Rushmore tourism maw without noticing a billboard for "Beautiful Rushmore Cave." The specifics of the cave's beauty are left to the traveler's imagination, as is its location. Just follow the billboards. You should be there in about 20 minutes....

Beautiful Rushmore Cave was developed as a show cave during the days of human tunneling, cement enhancements, and mood lighting. Aside from its stalactites, draperies, columns, and flowstone, the cave is especially proud of its "totally silent" Big Room. Most caves are totally silent, just like they're totally dark, but that's not the point. It's a highlight of the tour (We hope that no one has freaked out during the "moment of total silence.") and it's also rented to groups as a performance space with "absolutely no distractions," other than the distraction of being underground in a cave.