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Blanchard Springs Caverns

Photo: Dave Bunnell / CC BY-SA 4.0

🕳️ Caves

Blanchard Springs Caverns

Mountain View, AR · Ozark National Forest

About

The only show cave the U.S. Forest Service runs, and it earns the title: 366 feet down, past 686 stair steps on the Discovery Trail, a stream rises cold and clear at a steady 58 degrees and threads through chambers the size of cathedrals. The Giant Flowstone is the showstopper, 164 feet of golden calcite spilling like frozen water into a still green pool, while soda straws, rimstone dams, and the white-draped Ghost Room fill out the half-mile Dripstone tour. Bring a layer, take the lantern-lit walk slow, and watch a living cave still build itself one drip at a time.

Highlights

Giant Flowstone, one of the largest in the U.S.Discovery Trail descends 366 feet undergroundYear-round cave stream at a steady 58 degreesThe white-draped Ghost RoomRanger-led Dripstone and Discovery tours

Getting there

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Part of these collections

Curated guides that feature Blanchard Springs Caverns.

America's Best Caves22 places

America's Best Caves

Step out of the daylight into another world: the longest cave on the planet in Kentucky, a desert chamber big enough to swallow a stadium in New Mexico, an underground waterfall in Tennessee, and a living crystal cavern in Arizona. Some you walk, some you ride a boat through, and one you crawl with a headlamp. America's great caves and caverns, from the national parks to the lantern-lit show caves.