Today, wildlife is construed as including geology, in particular, photos from reader Kevin Elskin of a cave formation in Arkansas. Kevin’s notes are indented, and you can enlarge the photos by clicking on them.
I was born and raised in Arkansas, and happily so. The Ozark Mountains are a fascinating place. Historically, Osage tribes hunted the area, but they never really settled it. The mountains are hundreds of millions of years old, slowly weathering into oblivion. Maybe their most majestic days are behind them, but they still have secrets to share if you care to go looking.
Today I would like to share some photos of Blanchard Springs Caverns, owned and operated by the United Stated Forest Service. It is located in north central Arkansas, due north of Little Rock and maybe forty miles from Missouri as the crow flies. Basically, the middle of nowhere. It is near Mountain Home, Arkansas, a small town noted for its folk music.
The main tour of Blanchard Springs is the Dripstone Trail. Elevators take you just over 200 feet underground, where you enter a cavern up to six stories tall. It is a live cave, still in the process of creating formations.
The first photo I took tries to capture the enormousness of the cavern. If you look carefully you can see the trails and walking paths through the cavern.
The following photos are of various formations; as much as possible I tried to include walkways to give some evidence of perspective.
Here is the cleverly named ‘Battleship’ formation:
As you reach the end of the tour you come to the soda straw room. I did a poor job of capturing it, but essentially there are tubular stalactites, each hollow with a bit of water clinging to the end.
Lastly, you can take a short drive and see where Blanchard Spring Creek empties from the caves:
So come visit Arkansas. Yeah, you are going to see Confederate license plates and plenty of Trump 2024 signs. But you will also meet some nice, friendly people and see some charming and beautiful sights. And there is nothing wrong with that.
Great photos. Thanks Kevin.
I didn’t realize Arkansas was so stunning.
I don’t mind the Trump signs. 50% of the nation or more will vote for Trump, we can’t continue to hate each other. Fellow Americans. All.
Cheers.
Amazing!
I’m pretty sure I remember some from really old magazines .. National Geographic…? Is it a pipe organ?
Wow! What gorgeous photos! I’m always happy to see photos from places I’ll never visit in person. Are the formations actually those colors, or are they artificially “enhanced” by the lighting?
Thank you, PC, for including geology as part of wildlife!
Thanks. I enjoyed seeing it. A beautiful departure resulting from a slight rule-bending of the site’s guidelines.
Thanks, Jerry for sponsoring this delight! – I’m curious, how long has the daily Hili and related articles been running?
Wowser’s! That is one amazing cave system.
Love the photos. We visited several interesting caves when we lived in Virginia. Most of the tour guides tried to describe the various features in terms of “rooms” and other ordinary structures—like soda straws. Since we were living in the belt buckle of the Bible Belt, there was also inevitably a room where visitors were encouraged to see the Baby Jesus in the rocks. Oh well.
Wow! Stunning photos. As a musician and recording engineer I must ask — what does it sound like in there? Is it silent, or can you hear the myriad dripping stalactites, or is there rushing water? I wonder if anyone has ever made a recording there — or if I might one day be the first?
You tour the cave with a group of people, so it was never completely silent. There are pools of water in the cave, and you can hear water dripping, as I recall. I do not know about recording, but I did find this:
https://www.blanchardsprings.org/caroling-in-the-caverns/
Also, at one point on the tour they extinguish the lights for a few moments. Darker than dark.
Awesome. Thanks for sharing, Kevin.
Gorgeous!
Otherworldly, trippy stuff. I’ve only driven *through* Arkansas enroute to someplace else, but I’ve got a friend thinking about retiring there. I hope he does so I can visit and check it out. You took fantastic photos there. Does it get crowded?
There are a limited number of tours and tickets for the caverns each day. Maybe 30 per tour and 4 or 5 tours per day. Tickets can sell out, so if you are planning a visit I would suggest buying tickets a day or so ahead of time. As I mentioned the caverns are near Mountain Home, which is a small town that is known for folk music. If there are concerts planned I think things can sell out. So if you decide to visit, some advanced planning is recommended, but it is not like things will be sold out *months* in advance.
I enjoyed your photos immensely. Not only because they are great photos of a spectacular site, but also because I was there about 10 years ago and these brought back good memories. Thanks for posting these!
Great photos. Impressive cave system.
These were a real treat, thanks!
Thanks! great photos
How I was taught the difference between a stalactite and a stalagmite:-
There are other ways. For instance
Beautiful, majestic cave and the creek flowing from it looks so fresh and pure!
How I was taught the difference between stalagmites and stalagtites (the pun works better in German): The tits are hanging and the mits are standing erect.
I am glad you mentioned ‘German’ – it allows me to segue into another definition of ‘Stalagmite’: a particularly obnoxious skin parasite afflicting many WWII POW pilots incarcerated in Stalag Luft 112B. Michael Palin might(!) confirm this.