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Ozarks RV Park

2022-10-02 Traveling from Mountanview, AR to Cotter, AR

Travel Day today. This caravan is different from our previous caravans. We began the day with breakfast together, then we held our traditional Drivers Meeting, where the route was discussed, then we had another GAM. The reason we have so much time before we leave is that all our drives are short. Only 57 miles today.

When we travel like this between campgrounds we have to leave by a certain time, but we can not arrive at the new campground until after a certain time. This leaves us time to stop along the way and kill an hour or two…

We crossed the White River, then stopped in the town of Calico Rock…

This being Sunday, everything was closed… The White River is famous for trout fishing, so there are several fishing concessions on the river…

This appears to be the Calico Rock…

To quote a song from the musical “Oklahoma”, on the occasion of one of the cowboys going to the big city, “And then I put my ear to a Bell telephone, and a strange women started in to talk…”

There is a nice park in the center of town with a picnic area…

We enjoyed a little lunch before we moved on…

We stopped once more, just to stretch our legs…

We arrived at the Denton Ferry RV park in Cotter, AR, population 886. There is literally nothing in this town. Its main attraction appears to be access to the White River and its trout fishing…

The campground is directly along the river…

Tonight’s dinner is at Colton’s, a chain steak house in nearby Mountain Home, AR. It is had to miss…

We had a nice banquet room to ourselves… Steaks, chops, chicken, ribs, and Salmon were on the menu… Service was a little slow (which is to be expected). It was nice to not eat deep fried Southern food…

We returned to the Villa. An enjoyable time was had by all…

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2022-10-01 Mountanview, Arkansas

Today is a free day to explore the area on our own. We chose to drive to the Blanchard Springs Caverns, about a 20 minute drive from the RV park…

Blanchard Springs Caverns is a cave system located in the Ozark–St. Francis National Forest in Stone County in northern Arkansas. It is the only tourist cave owned by the United States Forest Service and the only one owned by the Federal government outside the National Park System. Blanchard Springs Caverns is a three-level cave system, all of which can be viewed on guided tours. The Dripstone Trail runs through the uppermost level of caverns for about a half-mile and opened in 1973.  The Discovery Trail opened in 1977 and loops through a 1.2-mile section of the cavern, descending to the lower level of the cave, 366 feet underground, as well as to the Natural Entrance, about 100 feet below ground at that point, following the stream bed of the springs that created the cavern. This trail includes the Rimstone Dams, which create pools along the stream bed, and the Ghost Room, a small but very well decorated room in the uppermost level, with its huge white flowstone. Also offered is a “Wild Cave” tour which allows access to undeveloped parts of the cave to more adventurous visitors. It follows the upstream section of the cave, allowing visitors to see all three levels as the original explorers did, continuing beyond where the Discovery Trail ends.

Residents knew about the cave by the 1930s and called it Half-Mile Cave. Systematic explorations began in the 1950s and continued sporadically through the 1960s. Explorers discovered a skeleton in the cave in 1955 which was incomplete; a cause of death could not be ascertained. The caverns were opened to the public in 1973 after 10 years of development on the Dripstone Trail.

With 8.1 miles of surveyed passage, Blanchard is the second longest cave in Arkansas and the largest in volume. The limestone rock from which the caves and their formations developed was laid down in an ancient sea more than 350 million years ago. The cave is in middle Ordovician to lower Mississippian rocks and extends through six stratigraphic formations. The cave has shown over 5 levels of passage development but the upper two levels have eroded away as deepening valleys on the surface cut into them. The cave’s formation was largely phreatic in nature (formed below the water table) and passages have elliptical cross-sections typical of these formations. During the cave’s development, active streams have been pirated from one level down to another without much vadose erosion occurring. The present stream currently rises from the cave at Blanchard Springs itself, at the same temperature as the cave, a constant, year-round 58 °F. Most of the lower-level Discovery Route is in the approximately 100-foot thick Plattin limestone whereas the Dripstone tour route in the uppermost level of the cave spans 3 units, the Boone Chert, Cason Shale, and the Fernvale Limestone. Blanchard remains a “living” cave in part because of the care given by visitors and the United States Forest Service. Thus the formations inside continue to grow as calcite is actively deposited by seeping and dripping water. One of the outstanding examples of formation growth is the Giant Flowstone, one of the largest in the U.S., at 164 feet long, 33 feet wide, and 30 feet thick.

We drove through typical Arkansas countryside…

It was a nice, easy tour; as with most caves, photos do not do it justice… But we tried…

After the cave tour we drove a mile to see the springs. This is where the water from the caves flows out and forms a creek…

We returned to the Villa and had a relaxing evening. We did have an opportunity to invite a few other caravaners over to share happy hours. And an enjoyable time was had by all…

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2022-09-30 Mountanview, Arkansas

We began our day with a walk “next door” to The Ozarks Folk Center Craft Village State Park. There are about 15-20 “cabins” set up for local craftsmen to work, display, and sell their wares. It was very quiet and there were few other tourists wandering around. Most of the crafters seemed happy to sit quietly, alone, working on their particular craft. But they were also happy to show us what they were doing and explain what it was they were doing…

There were separate cabins for jewelry, gardening (herbs), quilts (we skipped that one), woodcarving, pottery, etc…

There was also an authentic cabin – the “Shannon Cabin” – that was moved here from about eight miles away. It dates from the late 1700s…

Here is the pottery cabin…

We walked right by this one…

The Wood Carving cabin was interesting mostly for the tools, both modern and ancient, that were on display and being used by the craftsmen…

By lunch time we were ready to return to the Villa. This photo shows some of the campsites that some of the “little” Airstreams were parked in…

Lynda had some “duties as assigned” as part of the Social Committee. One Airstream couple is celebrating their 50th wedding anniversary today!

Later in the afternoon we had our first GAM – “Get acquainted Meeting” so that we could, you know, get acquainted with other caravaners… This was soon followed by another buffet dinner of Southern Food…

After dinner was the anniversary celebration. We returned to the Villa. An enjoyable time was had by all…

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2022-09-28 Mountanview, Arkansas

Quiet day waiting for the caravan to start tomorrow…

We did some cleaning, housecleaning, laundry, and reading…

A few Airstreams arrived. We opted to stay in for happy hours and dinner…

And we walked around aimlessly…

And that was it!

An enjoyable time was had by all…

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2022-09-27 Traveling to Mountanview, Arkansas

We hitched up and left Eureka, MO today. We are heading out to Mountainview, AR to the rendezvous spot for the caravan.

We drove about 50 miles along the interstate, then we topped off fuel in Rolla, MO. We left the interstate and said goodbye to civilization…

This is Missouri…

We no longer saw vast field of corn; here was more general farming and lots of rolling hills…

This is Willow Springs, MO, about halfway to the border…

We moved on…

These roads are all marked 55 mph, but the entire way is all curves, uphill, and downhill. The entire way is signed as SLOW – 25 mph, 35 mph, 45 mph for the curves, so there is no way you can go 55 mph…

The Ozarks, also known as the Ozark Mountains or Ozark Plateau, is a physiographic region in the states of Missouri, Arkansas, Oklahoma and the extreme southeastern corner of Kansas. The Ozarks cover a significant portion of northern Arkansas and most of the southern half of Missouri, extending from Interstate 40 in central Arkansas to Interstate 70 in central Missouri.

There are two mountain ranges in the Ozarks: the Boston Mountains of Arkansas and the St. Francois Mountains of Missouri. Buffalo Lookout, the highest point in the Ozarks, is located in the Boston Mountains. Geologically, the area is a broad dome with the exposed core in the ancient St. Francois Mountains. The Ozarks cover nearly 47,000 square miles (120,000 km2), making it the most extensive highland region between the Appalachians and Rockies. Together with the Ouachita Mountains, the area is known as the U.S. Interior Highlands.

The Salem Plateau, named after Salem, Missouri, makes up the largest geologic area of the Ozarks. The second largest is the Springfield Plateau, named after Springfield, Missouri, nicknamed the “Queen City of the Ozarks”. On the northern Ozark border are the cities of St. Louis and Columbia, Missouri. Significant Ozark cities in Arkansas include Fayetteville, Bentonville, Springdale, Eureka Springs, and Fort Smith. Branson, just north of the Arkansas–Missouri border, is a tourist destination and popularizer of Ozark culture.

As we drove south we finally crossed over into Arkansas…

This is Arkansas – the countryside is not much different than southern Missouri…

Some fixer-upper real estate is sometimes available…

We arrived at the Ozarks RV Park in Mountainview… Three other Airstreamers were already here – these are our leaders, co-leaders, and a friend who came in early to help out…

We set up the Villa, and met our new friends; soon we all headed out together to go to dinner. At 4:30! We went to The Wing Shack and Cheeseburger Grill, one of the finer attractions in town…

And an enjoyable time was had by all…

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