We met for our monthly meeting at The Front Porch Restaurant in Yellville, AR.
After our meeting most of us were off on a ride to the beautiful Blanchard Springs.
While there, we went for a tour of the caverns and rode down to check out the spring.
Blanchard Springs Caverns
Operated by the National Forest Service, Blanchard is a multi-level cavern complex, with the two upper levels open for guided tours along paved and lighted trails. Thousands of visitors have enjoyed the Discovery and Dripstone trails each year since their opening in 1973. Touted by Life Magazine as the “cave find of the century,” Blanchard has received constant environmental care and remains a “living” cave. The developed trails provide access to the most beautiful formations known to exist in the Blanchard system. Dripstone’s 1,150 foot-long Cathedral Room ranks among the most decorated underground rooms in North America. Great flowstones, crystalline columns, colorful stalagmites, and delicate soda straw stalactites are just some of the reasons that Blanchard has been proclaimed one of the top 10 caves in North America. Blanchard Springs Caverns remains open daily from April through October, then operates five days a week (Wednesday-Sunday) November through March. It is closed Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Years Day. Reservations are recommended during June, July and August, plus holiday weekends. Ozark National Forest facilities at Blanchard include a visitors center, exhibit hall, introductory movie, and a bookstore operated in cooperation with the Ozark Interpretive Association. Public use camping and picnic sites are located nearby. Other attractions include a fishing lake, hiking trails and Blanchard Springs, which emerges from the caverns and forms a stream that flows several miles to the White River.
Mirror Lake, Blanchard Springs Rec. Area
A massive stone dam, built during the Great Depression by the Civilian Conservation Corps on Mill Creek, creates Mirror Lake where rainbow trout are regularly stocked by the state Game and Fish Commission. Also, smallmouth bass are found in pools along the area's two creeks. A boardwalk and paved nature trail take visitors within a few yards of the rushing water.
