BLUE & YOU-SUMMER 2019 (WEB)

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in Arkansas Nature’s air-conditioned hike Blanchard Springs Caverns offers three separate guided-tour options for visitors: The Dripstone Trail, the Discovery Trail and the Wild Cave Tour. Here’s a brief description of each: • The Dripstone Trail takes about an hour to tour and is accessible to wheelchairs and strollers (with assistance). The tour covers four-tenths of a mile, has 50 stair steps to navigate and has seating areas along the trail for rest. Blanchard Springs Caverns: A cool way to stay active and beat summer’s heat G Getting outside in Arkansas in the summer can be a sweaty proposition. But for those who want to experience all “The Natural State” has to offer and still keep cool, there is a wonderful alternative – Blanchard Springs Caverns. Located just 11 miles northwest of Mountain View in the heart of the Ozark National Forest, Blanchard Springs Caverns offers breathtaking views and opportunities for adventure, all at a comfy 58 degrees year-round. Known as “The Living Cave” because it constantly changes, • The Discovery Trail takes an hour and a half and is a bit more strenuous than the Dripstone Trail. There are approximately 700 stair steps to navigate, which means it’s not recommended for those who have health problems. • The Wild Cave Tour is the one for more adventurous souls. On this tour, visitors get to “suit up” with hard hats, kneepads, gloves, lights and utility belts and take a three- to fourhour tour in, around and through the deepest of Blanchard Springs’ caverns. It is extremely strenuous and is recommended only for those who don’t mind getting a real workout. Participants must be at least 10 years old, and adults must accompany children 12 years old and younger. 10 Blue & You SUMMER 2019
All three trails provide opportunities to see calcite formations, massive flowstones, stalagmites and stalactites. Cave bats are rarely seen along the Dripstone Trail but are more frequently encountered on the other two routes. After a guided “spelunking” tour, visitors may take in the beauty of the Ozark National Forest, perhaps by visiting the year-round spring that gushes from the base of the mountain, fishing on Mirror Lake, hiking beneath the waterfall that flows over the dam or spending a leisurely night at the Blanchard Springs Campground. There is so much to see and do, you can log 10,000 steps before you know it. You can get in a day’s exercise without breaking a sweat. Who is Blanchard? ... and other discoveries Blanchard Springs Caverns is a limestone cave system more than 200 feet underground in the midst of the Ozark National Forest. It is named for John H. Blanchard, a native Kentuckian who moved to Arkansas after the Civil War. He homesteaded 160 acres in the Ozarks and built a gristmill powered by the spring that now bears his name. Planning to drop in? Blanchard Springs Caverns, which is managed by the U.S. Forest Service, is open (9:30 a.m. - 6 p.m.) seven days a week from April through October. The rest of the year, the caverns are closed on Mondays and Tuesdays and on Thanksgiving Day, Christmas Day and New Year’s Day. Even though local residents were aware of the cave’s existence in the early 1930s, the first documented visit was in 1934 by William Hadley, a planner with the Civilian Conservation Corps. It was explored by amateurs in 1955 and by professional explorers in 1960. In 1971, scuba divers entered through the spring entrance and followed the underground river through 4,000 feet of underwater passages. They were able to map all five caverns. The Dripstone Trail opened to the public in 1973, and the Discovery Trail opened in 1977. Blue & You SUMMER 2019 11
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