Cosmic Cavern - Berryville, Arkansas - Cave Featuring Bottomless Lakes

Cosmic Cavern is a limestone cave and tourist attraction located at Highway 21 N in Berryville, Arkansas and is also about half way between Eureka Springs, Arkansas and Branson, Missouri. It opens daily from 9am to 5pm during the spring, fall and winter seasons, whilst between Memorial Day and Labor Day the hours are 9am to 6pm. This attraction remains closed on Thanksgiving Day and Christmas Day.

Guided tours are provided at the caves located in the Ozark Mountain, where visitors will see an incredible array of rock formations and are welcome to bring cameras and camcorders. These include stalactites, stalagmites, flowstone, cave popcorn, soda straws and helictites. One section called Silent Splendor has a large collection of soda straws, some of which hang up to nine feet in length and the largest formation of this type in the Ozarks.

The cave was first discovered back in 1845 by John Moore, who was at the time searching for lead. The areas around the entrance to the cave were subsequently mined for onyx. The early visitors to the cave were reportedly afraid of the bats and would smoke them out with burning tires, but now the population is starting to return.

Although the cave is the warmest in the Ozarks with the temperature always 62 degrees it is still amazing to find creatures in there that can live in the dark conditions. Blind cave salamanders can be found here although they are very rare, but extraordinarily there are fish in the cave too. The tour will take visitors to two lakes, with the south lake housing mainly blind and colorless trout for several decades.

The lakes are believed to be bottomless as divers have tried unsuccessfully to find the bottom of either. People of all ages can take the tour, which lasts approximately one hour and a quarter and is roughly one third of a mile. Special school group tours are also available for 4th, 5th and 6th grades with a program called the Aquifer Study that takes about two hours.

As well as the regular tours there is also a wild cave tour, which takes visitors to parts of the cave rarely seen and is offered after normal hours. Reservations have to be made at least 24 hours in advance and all participants must 13 years of age or older and at least five feet two inches tall. The numbers for this tour are restricted to a maximum of six people and staff will provide participants with hard hats, gloves and lights.

A pavilion is available here for people to sit and enjoy their packed lunches and kids can play basketball as there is a hoop here too as well as a gift shop. Visitors are invited to try their hand at gemstone panning and whilst there is no gold here, much fun can be had looking for and finding rubies, emeralds, sapphires, quartz and other gems. The site also has free parking available for buses and tour groups.