Luray Caverns
Luray Caverns was the destination of today’s excursion,
located just 4 miles east of our campground.
We arrived early in the day before the crowds descended upon the
attraction. Our caravan leaders arranged
for a tour of the caverns for just our group.
Ethan did an excellent job of leading us through the underground
pathway. As part of his standard talk,
Ethan provided all of the answers to a virtual geocache that a couple members
of the group were acquiring in order to register their find.
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| Luray Caverns Entrance |
Luray Caverns is a commercial cave that draws thousands of
visitors each year since its accidental discovery on 1878. The cavern is loaded with cave formations
such as, columns, stalactites, stalagmites, draperies, and mirrored pools. For those who have not been to Luray Caverns,
the tour path is very well lighted and paved for easy walking. There are 70 steps to descend into the
caverns and 68 steps to exit.
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| Draperies |
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| Art & Rita |
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| Ron & Shirley - our newest traveling companions |
One of the main attractions of Luray Caverns is the Great
Stalacpipe Organ. The organ is an instrument that produces musical notes by striking stalagmites and stalactites located
throughout the cavern with rubber mallets controlled by a custom console.
When a mallet strikes the rock, a microphone, similar to a guitar
pickup, captures the sound and returns it to a central location for
amplification. The music is then played through speakers hidden among the rock features.
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| The Great Stalagpipe Organ Console |
Sections of the cavern are still in active development. Water seeping through the earth picks up
calcium carbonate and deposits the mineral when the water enters the open
cavern as flows or droplets and the water evaporates. The resulting formation is white if the
calcium carbonate is in its pure form.
Other colors result if the mineral contains impurities absorbed from the
soil or rock layers such as, reds and yellows (iron), black (manganese
dioxide), blues and greens (copper).
Deposits accumulate at the rate of one cubic inch every 100 years.
In addition to the cavern, we explored the Car and Carriage
Museum, Toy Town Junction, and the Luray Valley Museum.
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| A Temporary Exhibit at the Luray Valley Museum |
Supper
For Supper this evening, we traveled back into Luray to
Gennaro’s Restaurant for an Italian Supper.
Several take-away boxes came home with the group.
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| Waiting to Do What We Do Best |
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| Us Too! |
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| Don't Forget About Us |
We Celebrate a Birthday
Today was Les A.’s birthday.
It was one of the BIG ONES, so everyone was glad to return back to the
campground, share some birthday cake, and wish him well. HAPPY BIRTHDAY LES!!!!
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| Les and Wilma Jean |
