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: