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• Sylamore Scenic Byway

• 9:00 - 24.8 mailia / 49 minuuttia - 9:49

  Blanchard Springs Caverns

  At Blanchard Springs Caverns, visitors can enter a "living" cave where glistening speloeothems, like stalactites, stalagmites, columns and flowstones, are slowly changing. These crystalline formations are the result of minerals deposited by dripping water. Blanchard Springs Caverns is administered by the US Forest Service, Sylamore Ranger District, Ozark-St. Francis National Forests. Blanchard is a three-level system, but only two levels of the caverns are open for guided tours. The first tour, the Dripstone Trail, opened in 1973, completing ten years of planning and development of the caverns. Another four years of work concluded with the opening of the second tour, the Discovery Trail. The Dripstone Trail Tour, open year-round, shows about a half-mile of huge rooms and sparkling formations. It is accessible to strollers and wheelchairs with assistance. You must provide your own wheelchair. The Discovery Trail Tour, open only in the summer, is longer and more strenuous. It contains the natural entrance as well as a peek at the water-filled third level of the caverns. The last part of the tour contains great flowstones and crystalline formations. This tour contains 700 stairs. At Blanchard Springs Recreation Area near the caverns, visitors can camp, fish, swim, and enjoy crystal clear streams, a large flowing spring (12,000 gallons per minute), a small lake, and picturesque bluffs.