Hurricane River Cave - Harrison, Arkansas - Tourist Attraction with Guided Tours of the Cave

Hurricane River Cave is located at Impulse Drive in Pindall, Arkansas and is approximately 16 miles south of Harrison on Highway 65. This visitor attraction offers tours of this historic site that vary in difficulty and are definitely not for anyone remotely claustrophobic. On obtaining tickets to enter the caves, visitors will be provided with the appropriate equipment for that tour including lanterns, as not all areas are adequately lit.

The cave is located on the side of a mountain that once had a natural waterfall flowing from it, but over the years this dried up and so a pump is now used to power the water. Boards are laid on the floor for visitors to walk over what remains of the flow of the Hurricane River here. The cave was essentially carved out by the flowing Hurricane River through years of erosion and visitors will note the spider's web iron gate entrance.

There are three tours offered at the cave for visitors to explore and learn about the history, geology and wildlife that once roamed around the cave. The regular daily tour takes visitors around a lit area of the cave with walkways making access relatively easy, and no prior booking needs to be made for this visit. However, the two Wild Adventure tours need to be booked in advance and take visitors through the undeveloped two miles of cave system.

Participants in the Wild Adventure tours must be relatively fit, 12 years of age or older with all minors accompanied by an adult. These are guided tours with all necessary equipment such as helmets provided, and visitors are advised to wear old clothing and hiking boots or old sport shoes as there are many wet, narrow and low places to pass through. These are long tours too taking between three and four hours each and all participants must sign a release form before the start.

Highlights of the cave include the wonderful geological features such as speleothems, stalactites, stalagmites, flowstone, draperies, soda straws, rimstone dams, columns, and moonmilk. The more unusual speleothems are cave popcorn, stalactoflats, and shields and visitors may also see the bats roosting in the cave. Visitors can also observe signs of animal life with bear beads, bear claw marks and an area where a saber-tooth tiger was excavated in the 1970s.

Visitors to the Hurricane River area can find a campground located 12 miles west of Grand Morais on County Road Highway-58, and on the shores of Lake Superior, with 21 campsites situated here including two accessible ones. Near the picnic area the Hurricane River flows in to Lake Superior and just a short distance from the campground is a one and a half mile trail, which passes shipwreck remnants to the historic Au Sable Light Station. Should visitors to the area prefer more comfortable surroundings overnight, the Quality Inn, Hampton Inn and Holiday Inn Express are amongst several hotels located in nearby Harrison.