We spent 4 nights in a campground outside of the park a short way– close enough to drive to every day. We took a two hour tour through one of the caves on the first full day we were there. They warn you before you start – be ready to go up and/or down close to 500 steps. If 
you are too big you will have a difficult time in some areas because some places were narrow – it wasn’t bad though we all fit just fine. Some of us my height (5’8″) and those taller had to stoop in places because of the height restrictions in certain areas.
Over all it was very interesting. If you are the least bit claustrophobic don’t try it. Or afraid of the dark – some places are very dimly lit. When you first enter 
the cave you start by going down – I started to count steps and quit – too many. (me in the red jacket – 55 degrees in the cave, although I got to warm in the jacket and ended up tying it around my waist)
The tour group is large, there must have been 50 of us easily in the group, a ranger at the front and one brings up the rear. Part of the group with us here in the photo on the right.
The photo on the left is some of the formations in the cave. There were way too 
many interesting formations and things in the cave to photo all of them, but Mike tried his best but didn’t want to hold up the line too much. Here on the right photo is more – such interesting shapes.
They did a lot of work in this cave to make it accessible to tourist, there are some paved walk ways, a lot of metal steps and some steps just kind of carved out of rock.
You are only allowed to bring in a bottle of water with you if you want it – no food, no purses, no fanny packs, no knapsacks. You can bring in a camera but no bag to put it in. I do believe some of these restrictions were to make it hard for you to try to sneak any pieces of rocks out of the cave with you. You might be surprised at how many people would most likely try to do this if they could. A flashlight is also allowed if you want to bring one, there are lights here and there so you can find your way without a flashlight but it would come in handy in a few places here and there.
On another day at the park we took a hiking trail that starts at the back of the visitor center and makes a very wide loop around it down into the woods. We saw a lot of deer for being on a trail where there are a bit of visitors – although most of the park visitors are there to tour caves not to take hikes in the woods.
The first creature I saw though was not a deer though but a tiny mole here on the left! you don’t usually just spot these little things – slightly bigger than a mouse!! I almost stepped on it though before it scurried onto the leaves and off of the trail. It was hunting and had a worm in it’s sights – Mike was able to get a photo before it left the area – after it ate the worm that is 
We saw a beautiful sight – a mother deer and it’s young at the rivers edge.
You see deer often but how often do you get to see the baby on wobbly legs learning to drink from the river? Oops – she spotted us (here on the right) and Mike was using the long range lens! She had great hearing although we were trying to be quite some other people were loudly talking coming from a different direction.
And look at these trees here on the left- what a twisted combination they 
are. There were many twisted trees off of this trail. Plus large ferns and flowers of all kinds. 
Anyone know what kind of flower this white one is? It was very pretty but I could not find it in my booklet although there were a lot of them off of this trail.
As we were getting close to the end of the trail we ran into a family with children that were hiking from the opposite direction. The kids were very excited because they had spotted a deer and had to point him out to us – we told them about the mother and baby deer further back on the trail but I doubt she was still there by time they would have gotten to that spot. 
This deer was in an unusual location. He (if you look closely you will see he is growing a set of antlers) was laying down at the opening of a rock ledge a bit above the step area with the bench and stayed 
there the whole time just watching us. Never moved even though the children were quite loud with their excited voices having spotted this deer. After the family moved on – believe me it took some encouragement from the parents to get these kids to move I reclined on the bench and just sat there watching him while Mike was taking photo’s.
This was the second to the last stop on our trip. The last day we finally got back into Arkansas and camped for the night at a state park called Crowley’s Ridge located in Northeast Arkansas. Mike is working on those photo’s so I might be able to post a few tomorrow and finish up the blogs about our trip. I am amazed at how many of you have sent me notes enjoying the blog postings on our trip and I thank you for your comments!
Click on the photo’s to enlarge.
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