There are ten miles of hiking trails within Lewis & Clark Caverns State Park, so we were determined to see some of these today. We hiked from the campground using part of the Cave Gulch Trail to get to DanMor Historic Gypsum Mine, then wound our way back to camp. Tony ran ahead once we had the camp in sight, so he could get us ready to move to the next campsite before checkout time. We were cutting it a bit close.

This gypsum mine was relatively close to the Portland cement plant in Trident (the train depot is now in Three Forks) that was founded by Dan Morrison, the local entrepreneur who gave unofficial cave tours when the railroad took his mineral claim at the cave then gave it away to the federal government. This quarry produced over 100,000 tons of Morrison Gypsum. Like the limestone hills, the gypsum was here because of an ancient sea. We did see small marine fossils in the limestone on our walk up to tour the cave.

We sought some lunchtime shade up at the picnic area near the second visitor’s center for cave access. While walking around, we happened to find a CCC “comfort station”, i.e. outhouse, at the picnic site. Both sides were two-seaters. It reminded me of the outhouse next to a big garage on my Kinnison grandparents’ farm near Bethany, MO. My cousins and I would use it “for fun” while out playing rather than the “ordinary” bathroom in the farmhouse.

This afternoon, I rested my ankle while Tony grabbed a walkie talkie (no cell service) and headed up a trail alone. He took the Cave Gulch trail all the way up to the cave visitor center, then came down using the Middle View trail, which has switchbacks for an easier slope. Long pants were a good choice this time as the grass on this morning’s trail made his legs very itchy.

The campground here is nicely kept with a central bathhouse that has $3, quarters only, showers. Many sites have trees; we were under a cottonwood the first night, but in the full sun the second day. I was able to reserve an electric site the first night, but not the second. Most sites are non-electric. There was a campfire ban as the grass is really dry now, but we don’t typically make campfires anyway. That way there is no smoke coming in our open windows:)