TWO CAVES IN ONE DAY



THURSDAY

TRAVEL DAY
STOP #237



During today's short travel day, less than 50 miles, we found ourselves still going up and over the Ozark Mountains instead of following the valleys in between. Also these roads were tight winding and twisting roads with 40MPH speed limits instead of the long straight up and down roads like before.

Towards the end of the route we passed through the small tourist town of Eureka Springs, AR. Google says they have a population of around 2100 people, but this weekend I imagine that might double.

Even while we were still 15 miles out of town we started seeing an extraordinary number of Chevy Corvettes on the road. Sometimes three or four in a row passing us on the highway. After we crested the final ridge before town we saw every single hotel/motel had dozens of Corvettes in their parking lots and each of the gas stations had one or two at the pumps.

When we finally got setup in our new campsite I went online and found out this weekend is the 30th Annual Eureka Springs Corvette Weekend.

I'm not much of a Chevy guy as you may know, I prefer Fords, but we did see several Corvettes from the 1950s and 60s. Those were a little more appealing to me and maybe we'll go into town to see if we can get a closer look at some of them.

I sure hope these Corvette owners aren't big fans of cave tours, because we have two planned for this weekend and I don't like to share my tour guide with just anyone?



Our empty waterfront campsite awaits our arrival.


All snuggled in after backing down that very long driveway.


A view of our picnic table and firepit area.
We'll have to be sure to take advantage of this space this weekend.


This weekends view out of the rear open hatch.


Here is a view of the swimming beach and THE POD from the other side of the campground.


Our first sunset here overlooking Beaver Lake.


ALL OF THIS FOR $14 A NIGHT? AMAZING!




FRIDAY - Today wasn't the first time, and probably not the last time, we have visited two caves in the same day.

I went ahead and checked our Cave Tours Page and was surprised to find it's actually the seventh time we've done this.

The two caves we're visiting today are War Eagle Cavern and Onyx Cave, both here in the Ozark Mountains of Arkansas.

Since the first cave is south of Eureka Springs, and the second cave is north of the town, we once again got to see the new, and old, Corvettes all over town. Also in between cave tours we stopped at a roadside BBQ joint named Bad To The Bone BBQ for lunch. It was nothing more than a small concrete block building with a huge parking lot and a dozen tables under some trees, but the food was tasty and realtively inexpensive.

I'll include some Corvette photos in between the two cave tour photos in the slideshow below!



EUREKA SPRINGS - CAVES AND CORVETTES



The entrance to the War Eagle Cavern property.
Our guide discussing the discovery, history and development at the cave entrance.
The first big room was wide and shallow.
This cave has plenty of water running through it.
Even at 5'8" I had to duck my head to one side to pass through.
This cave salamander had no trouble with the low ceilings.
This area had a sinkhole collapse and created a new entrance to the cave.
Just inside to cave entrance looking out at the end of the tour.
After our first cave tour we got caught behind this parade of Corvettes going 15mph under the speed limit. I thought people bought Corvettes to go 15mph over the speed limit on these winding mountain roads?
Once back in Eureka Springs the Corvettes were everywhere.
There is nearly 70 years difference between the oldest and youngest Corvette in this photo.
Even the vacant businesses had Corvettes parked in their lots.
The Onyx Cave entrance. This tour is delivered through a set of headphones.
You walk until you reach a yellow painted line on the floor and then press the green button to turn on additional lights that reveals what the narration is describing.
A mammoth sized coloumn formation greets you just inside the entrance.
Just around the next corner was this triple column formation.
There were also some larger than normal stalactite formations.
Use your imagination to spot the elephant shape in this photo. (HINT: trunk of the left, behind on the right)
This is what happens when soda straw formations become clogged. They take off in all different directions and are then called helictites.
Exiting the cave with my headphones in my hand.
No Tricia you can't take Cat home with us!



Just another Saturday night,
hanging by the lake,
waiting for the sunset,
after a lazy day of doing nothing terribly important.
Ahhhh. Life on the road!


In case any of you missed this photo on Tricia's Instagram account I thought I'd share it here.
It's Tricia doing her best impression of a butterfly inside of the Onyx Cave gift shop!



SUNDAY - Tonight is our last night here at Beaver Lake and we nearly have the whole campground to ourselves.

That's the way it usually is when all the weekenders go home and try to get ready to return to work tomorrow morning. We've had some windy days and nights here on the lake, each day had a wind gust up into the mid-30mph range. The overnight winds were slighly gentler with gusts only into the mid-20mph.

We're forecast for some rain tonight and early tomorrow morning, so we'll pack up as much as we can tonight before bedtime, so as not to have to do it tomorrow in the rain.

After five stops in a row in the National Forests and then a couple of Army Corp of Engineers Parks, we next have several State Parks on our route.

Our next stop is for an entire week, so it'll be awhile before you see the next post.



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Until next time

TWO PEAS