Caves?

In my hikes, I would like to explore some caves, but I have not had any luck in locating any in the Arkansas Ozarks. Anyone know of any good ones?

Are you 'sperienced? Blanchard Springs forest guys can show you a couple, but you can't be a rookie. Also the bat fungus/virus whatever had many caves off limits. Is that still on?

Lost valley too simple for ya? It is cool. Ponca area over near Jasper. A river map or topos will show you a couple more in that neighborhood.

The Indian Creek trail has a few caves. It is a primitive trail off of the Buffalo right in Ponca. To get there go to Kyles Landing and then head to Steel Creek. When you hit Steel Creek, just follow it away from the Buffalo River. Eventualy you will run into the Arkansas Cave, but it is off limits. From the Arkansas Cave you head up a sttep cliff into a depession, and at the top there is a neat little cave. Going on from there you go through a little tunnel, and then over to the eye of the Needle. Good little hike, but keep an eye out for the trail, it is not marked, take a map!!

I think there are probably more caves in Missouri.

Coldspring wrote:I think there are probably more caves in Missouri.

.... The Ozarks... thousands of "known" caves. Probly lots more that are not so much common knowledge or even yet to be discovered... or explored and mapped back into their full glory. Mo claims over 6000, Ar.. if memory serves was 2000. That number may have counted part of MO also... not sure.

TNFrontier,

Do you know any good caves in your neck of the woods?

Are you really wanting to go caving, or just check a few out? I always liked to peek around in the big ones a little, but I'm too scared to go caving when it involves crawling or climbing equipment. Seems like more and more are getting gated.

There are caves in TN, but most are east of the TN river. There was one near Linden TN that we used to go to some in college... but I have forgotten the exact location. It was probably on private land!

I did the Wild Cave Tour in Mammoth Caves National Park in Kentucky earlier this year. The guided cave tour was a 6 hour experience of a life time. It was worth every dime I spent on it and actually seemed like they under charged...and I am cheap! http://www.recreation.gov/tourSearchResult.do?contractCode=NRSO&parkId=77817

Be prepared to get sweaty and dirty and reservation in advance are required! The group is limited to 12 or 14 people and there was a lot of one on one time.

There is a grotto in Little Rock that you could contact. I am not sure if they will give coordinates without being a member of their group, but they meet on the 1st Thursday of each month in Maumelle. Here is their website. http://www.caves.org/grotto/lrg/ Hope that helps.