Blanchard Springs Caverns

Update: If you're stopping by from Field Trip Friday, we will be out of town; I won't have time to post about a new trip. Here is a visit to one of our favorite places in Arkansas.

We enjoyed having Daddy off for the 3-day weekend. Friday, we decided to go to Blanchard Springs, which is about two hours away. The only down side is how carsick Tornado and I always get. Practically any place we want to go in Arkansas gets the two of us feeling awful (but luckily, we never throw up). It doesn't help that we are the two that like to read in the car.

We had to stop at the Wal-Mart in Mountain View to buy Sissy a pair of shoes. Somehow she made it into the car without any. I'm not pointing any fingers. ;)

We found a lovely place to enjoy our picnic lunch and had a superb day.

It was really hot outside, and it was wonderful to step into the 58 degree cave. Tornado LOVED the tour. We chose the easier Dripstone Trail tour.

Dash enjoyed it, too, but he wasn't always quiet when the guide was speaking. He only got called out once for touching the cave wall, which was the biggest cave rule; it can damage the whole cave ecosystem apparently. Leave it to my son. In his defense, an adult man also got scolded once, as well.

Halfway through the one hour tour, Sissy had pretty much lost her patience. She was tired and thirsty. She wouldn't stop saying, "I want my juice."

It was impossible to get a picture to capture the cavern's amazingness, but if you're that interested, you can see a picture here. I literally said, "Wow!!" when we stepped inside.

There was a pretty good little museum to enjoy while we were waiting on our cavern tour time. The boys are now fascinated by bats, and we are starting a little bat unit because of their interest from this trip. Of course, they loved the huge piles of bat guano in the cave.

A little piece of trivia for you because I just looked it up to make sure I was getting it right: A cave is "any cavity in the ground that does not receive direct sunlight." A cavern is a specific type of cave. So a cavern could also be called a cave, but a cave isn't always a cavern. Got it?

We also watched a very informative/educational short film about the cave's formation/history.

We went swimming next. Here they are playing the Daddy-invented game, "Float the Rock." The goal was to land little rocks onto the big rock.

Dash could go swimming in the creek every day. He was right in his element.

He was the last one to exit the water at the end of the day.

There were signs at the main swimming area declaring the area closed due to unsafe water conditions (e coli). Is it weird that there were so many people swimming there anyway? I don't know how all that works.

The people at the visitor's center directed us to a different swimming area, which had apparently tested safe. Even so, we pleaded with the kids to keep the water out of their mouths as much as possible, just to be safe. This is my ever-so-obedient 4 year old, filling his mouth with water, even as we were begging, "Don't put the water in your mouth! You're going to get diarrhea!"

This did not phase him. Thankfully, it's been a week, and I guess he made it, unharmed. :0

"A good time was had by all..."

Clearly.

Visit Live the Adventure to read about other fun "field trips."