Onyx Cave — Attraction in Eureka Springs

We were looking for something cheap to do and Onyx Cave happened to be the answer for us. And just like the rest of AR to get there you have to take a twisty road through the woods while it is best to be careful since there are some blind curves.

Once we got to Onyx Cave we were promptly met by their gray cat Flo who even chose to check out our car as we were trying to switch out our shoes.

From there you take a steep path ramp down to the office to check in. The staff were really friendly while going over the prices with us since they have cave tour prices as well as prices for a myriad of other activities that can be done without a tour or in combination with the cave such as a smash room, axe throwing and/or gem/fossil sluicing thus adding to the cost of your experience.

We signed up for a tour for myself and a smash room/cave tour for my husband. Once you are ready for the tour you are provided with a set of earphones as it is a self-guided tour that at the most takes 45 minutes unless you like to take your time with us.

The stops are marked out for you to take in while hearing the guide and there are additional buttons to push to highlight additional points like the columns or the replicated still.

The path has two lowish points for tall people while since it is a living cave you will find yourself dripped on while walking and in some cases in water. Otherwise there are no spots to squeeze through or crawl but just some stairs to take.

After leaving we were encouraged to look around the gift shop with Onyx (the other cat) finally waking up to join us. They keep a tank in the back of the shop with some blind cave fish as well as amethyst wings for an photo op.

Afterwards we made our way to the Smash Room where they have you suit up with gloves, a face mask, a jumper and booties before entering in. They leave you in the room with Smash music for your allotted time with a tub of glass and other breakable items while providing you with a chance to use sticks and bats to rage or even just toss it at the wall if your heart should wish.

For those not wanting to participate there is a covered window to give you a glimpse inside. And then afterwards your rager(s) get a chance to sign the wall.

We would most definitely enjoy coming back here again if in the...

Cost is $11.50 a person. I couldn’t find that advertised anywhere online. By the time , I got to the cashiers desk, I HAD to pay for the tour because there was no way I was walking up the steep incline to get to my car.The tour was audio based but it didn’t match up to the pace people moved. The tour would be better with a map or tour guide. The yellow line was almost invisible so that made it really hard to keep up with the tour. The cave was interesting, but not worth the entry fee.

It was a very short cave experience for the price. It only took 30 minutes for the entire experience. There is no tour guide. Instead you are given headphones. The auditory directions were not as clear as one would hope and the headphones stopped working halfway through for one of the members of our group. Also, they close earlier than posted on their website. Website said their last tour was at 2:30. We arrived as a party of 10 at 4:20 and were told they were closing for the day, so we had to trek out to it the next day. The gift shop was nice and not overpriced. Also the Axe throwing and SMASH areas were closed, even though there were signs up around Eureka Springs saying those areas were open.

I wanted to give this one a better review, but having been in a number of other caverns over the years, my perspective is probably a bit jaded by some of the truly spectacular cave systems I have visited. That said, Onyx has some things going for it. If you are staying in Eureka Springs, the caverns on right close by. Maybe a 10 minute drive. The road towards the ends get REALLY narrow so watch your speed and keep an eye out for others coming the other way. The walk from the parking area DOWN to the mine is formidable, especially for the elderly and little kids. Inside, the staff does a great job keeping the shared equipment, like the headphones, clean after every use.

They said the cave stays at around 53 degrees year round, but inside, it felt cool not cold. The recorded guided tour takes around 25 minutes in all and there are some interesting formations inside. But again, nothing that was all that spectacular. Given the short walk inside, I would suggest this is a really good cave for beginners or families with young children who may have never visited such a...

The only reason I don’t give this cave one star is because it is in fact a cave. Natures beautiful creation. I visited this cave about 8 years ago, and then again yesterday. It is still a self-guided tour (which is most likely the main reason this cave has deteriorated so much). They give you a headset with an audio recording that is very hard to hear, it might just be too outdated and may just need to be re-created. The audio recording is not engaging enough to make you want to keep the earphones on longer than a few minutes. Most people I saw while in the cave just pulled the earphones down to their shoulders. There is much rock, but not many stalactites and stalagmites. It’s takes 100 years for just one inch of these to form, and many have been broken off by unattended visitors. There is even a section where you can see the owners blocked off a some newer formations with plexiglass, the reason was obvious: you can see that people were throwing coins at the tiny stalactites to knock them down. There’s a ton of change in that little ridge, and sadly a ton of tiny broken stalactites. There is this one huge beautiful “shrine” looking formation, shown in this photo. You can see the circled red areas where people have broken pieces off, and the yellow circled areas are where this formations has blackened from people touching it and standing on it for photos. It was all just so heartbreaking. Basically any formation within arms reach has darkened due to touching, or has been broken off and stolen. Plus the very sad “hit the tiny stalagmite” coin game area I mentioned. One thing I do want to point out is that the gift shop has greatly improved! They also added a “gem sift” feature (for an additional fee) that looked kind of cool. And a random “smash room” ?? Totally weird and random, nothing to do with the cave, or geology, or nature, but it’s placed right in the entry way to the cave, idk, maybe setting the tone for the vandalism inside the cave…? Maybe I’ll return in a couple hundreds years, when the beautiful cave has had some time recover from so many...