Week of September 9, 2014
While in Mountain View, you must visit Blanchard Springs and Caverns. It's about twelve miles from here. Blanchard Springs and Caverns is a hidden gem located in the Ozark National Forest.
We took Coop and went for a nice walk through the woods...
After an enjoyable walk, we gave Coop a snack and some water. He waited in the truck for us as we went on a ranger-led, guided tour of Blanchard Cavern.
Blanchard Springs Caverns is an active cave where glistening formations of stalactites, stalagmites, columns and flowstones are still changing. These crystalline formations are the result of minerals deposited by dripping water. The cavern stays at a cool 58 degrees year round.
We went on the Dripstone Trail tour which wound us through the magnificent upper level of the cavern.
Our tour began with an elevator ride down over 200' into the cavern. Our tour took us almost a half mile into the cavern...
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| piece of crystal |
Throughout our tour we were gradually walking up 200'
to where we picked up a shuttle that took us back to the
Visitors Center...
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| heading onto the shuttle |
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| our awesome tour guide, Dale |
We found Blanchard Springs Caverns to more beautiful and colorful than our tour of Mammoth Cave in Kentucky.
Following our tour, we drove to the springs...
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| walking down to the springs |
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| Blanchard Springs is one of the many thousands of springs that just spring out of the Ozark Mountains. |
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| this rock reminded us of a medicine wheel... |
We had a beautiful day spent in the Ozark National Forest. Not too hot, just cool enough for all of our walking.
We have thoroughly enjoyed our stay in Mountain View...
Til next time,
Dawn, Ron & Coop
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