As an architect, Jeff knew about this chapel and wanted to visit it. It was built by E. Fay Jones who was a student of Frank Lloyd Wright and opened in 1980. It was built by a family on their land here in the Ozark Mountains.
It’s an amazing structure and I can see why it won so many awards.
Here’s a link to the website about this site so you can learn more: http://www.thorncrown.com/
And here are a few pictures we took:
While in Branson we visited the Talking Rocks Cavern nearby. It’s not a big cave but has lots of pretty formations. It was named Talking Rocks because several decades ago when the first tours were started, speakers hidden in the cave would ‘talk’ as guests grew near, making it sound like the rocks were talking. The rocks don’t talk anymore, a guide gives you information.
This cave has lots of draperies and bacon formations. Bacon is what a drapery formation that has stripes of colors is called – it does look like bacon hanging from the ceiling!
This is a mostly vertical cave, and you climb down stairs to see the formations and cavern area, then climb back up the stairs. It’s not a lot of stairs thank goodness!
Here are some pictures we took:
The area around Branson, MO has lots of caverns that are available for touring. We picked two of them and one was Cosmic Cavern, about an hour out of Branson. It’s actually in Berryville, AR.
This cave was discovered in 1845 and opened for tours in 1927. The tour doesn’t cover a large portion of the cave and there is a lot yet to be discovered. We visited one portion that wasn’t discovered until 1993.
This cavern has more soda straws than any other cave I’ve been in. It’s possible that it’s a more recent cave than some, since soda straws are the beginning formation of a stalactite. Also, quite a bit of the floor of the cave was in water, and the underground lakes are considered bottomless because the bottoms have not been found yet. Divers have gone under more than 70 feet but at that point the floor of the lake narrows to a crevice that the divers cannot get through.
This cavern is called “Cosmic Cavern” I think as a gimmick to be different from the other caverns in the area. When you enter the gift shop you are hailed with “Welcome, fellow Earthlings”.
It’s a worthwhile cave to visit with different rooms, the lake with blind salamanders (we didn’t see any) and the fact that it’s warmer than other caves at a constant 64 degrees. It does have a few narrow passages where you have to bend at the waist to get through, but they weren’t tight enough to trigger my claustrophobia, thank goodness!
Here are some pictures we took:
We drove from Mufreesboro, AR to Hollister, MO yesterday and it took us through the Ozarks. It’s very pretty! We saw several signs warning of steep and crooked roads but they must have a different definition of steep and crooked than what we’re used to!
Here’s a picture of the area we drove through:
We left Vicksburg and flooding behind a few days ago and just got into Hollister MO. The RV park we are staying at is alongside Turkey Creek which flooded last week. All the folks staying here had to evacuate but they’re back now. The floodwaters have receded from the park (but it’s still muddy in areas) but it’s still real high and some walking trails are underwater.
