Mountain View, Arkansas is a quaint little town located in the Ozarks. Established in the 1870s, the town is well known for it’s folk music. It’s a great place to unplug and enjoy the gorgeous nature of this “Natural State”.
Earlier in the year we took a trip to Mountain View, this trip bringing Abby along with us (our fur child). A few days prior to Memorial Day with no set plans, we booked a last minute trip for the weekend.
Saturday:
Our drive from home was only about two hours, which wasn’t bad at all. We stopped first at the OzarkโSt. Francis National Forest (this Forest is huge, but we stopped at the area specifically around Blanchard Springs). Knowing we couldn’t take Abby with us to the Caverns, we decided to explore first. We walked along the trails next to Mirror Lake, coming upon the Waterfall.
It was hot out, and we were getting hungry so we drove to a spot closer to where the spring comes out of the caves. Here we chilled for awhile and ate our picnic lunch, which Abby was glad for as well.
Back to exploring, we walked along the paths of the spring, making our way to where it comes out of the caverns. We stopped in one spot and I stepped in the water, it was SO very cold and almost unbearable. Abby enjoyed drinking the cool water with it being 90*+ that day, but she didn’t even want to get in it.
When we got to the end of the trail, there was a big open area with lots of kids playing in the water. I don’t know how they were handling it, just touching the water with my feet took my breath away it was so cold. We made our way across the rocks to get closer to the opening where water was gushing out of the caverns. We were told by a tour guide that the water came out at a rate of 3000 gallons a minute!
Next, we made our way to check-in at our “resort”. We stayed at Jack’s Fishing Resort right on the White River. The place had a homey feel to it, everyone was friendly and helpful. This family owned place wasn’t anything spectacular, but definitely met our needs. We had a screened in porch connected to our room which we enjoyed, and it was plenty roomy for us and our pup.
After relaxing a bit, we headed back to the Blanchard Spring Caverns to take a tour of the actual Caverns. John had been before, a couple times when he was younger, but this was my first cave tour! There are 2 main tours made available to the public, we decided on the Dripstone trail as it was going to be the “prettiest”. We took the last tour of the day so it wasn’t busy at all. It was really neat to experience and see, definitely larger than I imagined as well.
The caverns are always cool, around 58 degrees, and they keep them pretty dark as to not disturb “the living cave”. I’d definitely recommend stopping in if you are ever in the area, they are worth seeing for sure!
Following our cavern tour, we had dinner at Jo Jo’s Catfish which was connected to Jack’s Resort. We had a mixture of catfish, hush puppies, slaw, chicken, and fries, all filling but nothing special to rave about.
Our last venture of the night was a drive-in movie, we picked Abby up and headed to town. I’d been wanting to go to a drive-in movie since I was a kid. The Stone Drive-Inย was playing Deadpool 2 on this night, not a movie I really cared to see but I was dead set on going to a movie there. It was such a neat experience, the screen was super clear (I guess I was expecting it to be a little blurry or something ha!). The only thing we didn’t know, was that it’s best to bring your own AM/FM radio… so we had to rely on the speakers around us to hear. This worked out alright though because we were in the front and center.
Sunday:
We got up and headed to Anglers White River Resort for breakfast. We shared a loaded biscuits and gravy plate (with cheese, ham, bacon, eggs). We ate out on the deck so we could enjoy the view of the White River, it was very peaceful.
John wanted to do a little trout fishing before we left town, so after checking out of our resort we went back to Mirror Lake. He fished for awhile and had no luck, he’s a big bass fisher and wasn’t quite prepared for trout.
Afterwards we walked back over to the waterfall and noticed there were people down below in front of it. We found the trail leading down there and it was beautiful!! First we came upon the “Old Mill”, then the waterfall behind it was just breathtaking. My first time seeing a waterfall, I was freaking out!
There were shallow rocks across the water that you could walk on to get under a rock formation, John had on boots (of course) and didn’t want to get them wet so me and Abs walked across to it and he took our picture.
We would have gotten closer to the waterfall if John had on other shoes, I am too clumsy to have tried to get closer on my own especially with our pup. But the views were gorgeous, and the breeze coming off the cool water felt great in the heat.
Tired and ready to get into some air, we started to head home. We stopped half way in Cave City at the park to relax and so John could do a little fishing.
It’s always nice to get away after getting caught up in the busy-ness of life. We spent little time on our cell-phones (mainly cause no service haha) and just time with each other. It was a much needed trip for our little fam, and a great time overall. Abby enjoyed herself even though she was completely exhausted by the time we got home.
I’d definitely recommend a weekend trip to Mountain View if you’re within a couple hours drive, or even a one night stay if you’re ever passing through. There was more to do in the area that we just didn’t have a chance to do. I’m sure there are lots of cool Airbnb cabins to stay in if you book in a timely manner (unlike me, for once in my life), but our resort was enjoyable and worked well for what we needed (especially with it being pet friendly).
These winter months most of my posts will be reminiscing, so until next time. Thanks for reading! Please feel free to share.
“‘Cause baby there ain’t no mountain high enough, ain’t no valley low enough, ain’t no river wide enough, to keep me from getting to you babe.”
– Marvin Gaye & Tammi Terrell
On the Rhoades Again 
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