The Great Western Journey Part 6--A Jewel in the NPS

 The next morning we drove to Jewel Cave. We had planned to arrive early to get in line for tickets but had a small delay in some roadwork being done. Interesting that in Wyoming they tear up both sides of the road, down to the dirt and you have to be escorted across the work zone by another truck. So we didn't get an early tour as we wanted. Since we had some extra time we visited nearby Crazy Horse Monument which was a nice diversion (and a good place for lunch) until we could return for the tour.

This cave has small filigree, crystalline structures in the deposits, and some of the walls sparkle from reflected light. A ranger guides you along the path based on the tour you've selected. We chose one that was on a boardwalk through the caves. I was NOT going to have to try to squeeze through the box to prove I could get through some of the tighter passages off the main trails.

This layout is one that I made from a Paper Loft class I took in Lancaster. The only decorations are word boxes. They are so colorful that you don't really need any other decorations. I used the 3 photo spaces on the right for more words, the tickets, and some journaling. It's lovely to use up my pre-made pages.

No one knows just how long the cave system goes. There are still people who find new off-shoot tunnels. In the 5 years since we've been there, they have "added" to the known areas and it is now over 200 miles in length.  Because we had to stay on the walkway, it was difficult to get a lot of close-up photos of the calcite crystals. The brochure does a great job of demonstrating that though.

This layout is from a class I took this fall. I wanted to use the crystals in the brochure as the theme of the page. To do that I chose the Silver and Gold tonal paper pack that was a limited-time purchase from Creative Memories. I used blue background paper and other decorative elements from the Emerald Gemstones pack. There are some blue/green highlights in the photos and it gives a great pop of color to the gold tone papers. The borders are the icicle border maker cartridge. But placed on these pages it works as a stalactite as well!