Warning – Picture heavy post.
On Sunday morning, Mother’s Day in the United States, Pop, Brian and I went to Luray Caverns in Luray, Virginia. This is a bit more than an hour or so west of Washington, DC. The cavern was first discovered in 1878, when a farmer felt an airflow coming up out of the ground. Upon investigation, he discovered a massive underground area with many chambers, filled with stalactites, stalagmites, mirrored pools. In 1974, the United States’ National Park Service designated the caverns as a National Natural Landmark. I CAN NOT say that three times fast. It’s been a week since I was there, and I still am amazed at the beauty of what we saw. Group tours are escorted through, and Pop held back, trying to get pictures of the beauty without humans in the shot. He got some gorgeous pictures, but what I noticed, comparing his to mine, is that you can’t compare for size. I was nervous about straying away from the crowd in fear that the lights would go out or something. The immensity of the formations, the heights of the interior chambers, how freakishly huge this all is needs to be shown now and again!
Millions of little dribbles, for thousands of years. This is what it does.
This is where the dripping from the top has caused a formation from the ceiling, and what’s dripped off the end of it has caused a formation to build up from the floor of the cave, and those forces remained the same for long enough so that the two formations meet in the middle!
Formations coming down from the ceiling of a large chamber. What was the most eerie for me was looking up at those spiky things, that seem to be pointed right at you, and just having watched that Indiana Jones movie where they’re caught in a little room that’s getting shorter because the ceiling is coming down and they’re gonna get all these spikes into them.
More of that ceiling stuff. Stalagmites? (I learned which was which in grade school, 50 years ago. Never needed the information. Forgot it 49.5 years ago)
The guide who took us around told us some story about this section, much of which I couldn’t hear. Whatever it was, it led up to the fact that this section has been likened to fish hanging up to dry. And what kind of fish would they be? Don’t know?? Why, Rockfish, of course! Hahaha, very funny.
There are areas of standing water inside the caverns, still water that forms perfect reflections of the ceiling surfaces. And you could stand there for an hour.
Around you go, and every which way you turn, there’s something more magnificent. And your mouth forms a little “O” as you look around, astounded at such beauty. (which is another way of saying “Slack-jawed like an idiot”)
These photos have not been edited for color. Many of the formations are gray, but also many have yellow and orange tones, I’m assuming from iron? We saw areas with a greenish cast. Deep reds.
Pop and I were both angry here. Note the flat bottoms of the formations hanging from the ceiling. Damage. Breakage. Tourists taking souvenirs, marring what took thousands of years to form.
I’m including this picture just to show how massive some of these underground chambers are. It does go down to about 170 feet below the surface and the tour takes about 90 minutes. Or rather, I should say that the tour guide moves you along so that you’re out the other side in about 90 minutes, so they can herd the next group of paying customers through. Clearly, it’s a commercial enterprise, and their money is made by getting as many people through as possible; I understand that. But damn, in such a beautiful place, I must admit to feeling rushed along more than a few times. For me, I have the added disadvantage of not being able to see well in the dark, and having little close-up vision. So I have to pay much more care than most in dim light, or I stumble/trip and otherwise look like a drunken old woman. As I spent so much time staring down to avoid falling, I had less time looking up at the beautiful sights. But I think others felt the same way.
Every where you look, there are spiky things!!
This was taken looking down from a walkway into a deep chasm, as the path wanders around and back onto itself. You can see the handrail I was using to guide myself through. And another one below, at another level. Gives you an idea how big that “room” was!
Doesn’t that look like some weird ancient many-tentacles squid, frozen for all eternity? or am I just weird,thinking that?
See the drop on the right? See the bottom of the hole? No? Uh, I didn’t either, and I was looking down from the handrail. Eeeesh.
I really suck at estimating distances, so any guess I made of how high these ceilings are would probably be way off – 50 feet, maybe higher? Way the hell up there, though.
There’s all different shapes of the formations, all different types. I don’t know what causes them to form in this way or that. What amazed me (duh, again) was these 2 different types, immediately next to each other, so radically different. It takes thousands of years for these to form, and one “shape” never mixed with the other?
I really think this is something!!
Some of the rooms are massive, immense chambers with much to see of great beauty. Sometimes, we had to duck our heads to get through. Well, some more than others. My tall son had to be more alert to this than I did!
Makes you wonder just how far back it goes? If you were willing to crawl in there, how long would it take to reach the end? Uh, I’m not willing, I’m just asking.
My very tall son stuck real close to me, knowing how I stumble alot!! I think he now has one or two dents in his head, from looking down or out when he should have been looking up! He’s looking into another pool of water here, smooth as glass.
Luray Caverns is a beautiful place to see, and anyone that has the opportunity should go. We chose the day to go by the local weather report. Topside, it was gray and overcast, and a few times, pouring rain – which didn’t make a damn bit of difference when you’re way down in a hole in the ground.
