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Winter Trip - January-March 2019
Virginia Caverns
We returned to New Market, VA and visited some of the caverns in the area.
The places of interest we went to in Arizona were:
Shenandoah Caverns
Luray Caverns
Skyline Caverns
Shenandoah Caverns
Shenandoah Caverns in Quicksburg, VA is the most beautiful caverns we have visited.
When we purchased tour tickets we were told it would be about 20 minutes before the next tour started. We spent that time at "Main Street of Yesteryear". This area displays antique department store window displays from the '40s and '50s. There are displays ranging from Cinderella Going to the Ball to the 3-Ring Circus to a beautiful carousel to a display with giant teddy bears.
When it was announced the tour was ready to leave, we discovered we were the only ones on the tour. It was great having our own personal tour. The tour guide was great and because it was just us we were always close enough to hear what he was saying and distinguish what he was pointing out.
Once deep into a cavern there is no natural light, so the lighting has to be provided. Most caverns we have been to use colored lighting for most of the highlighted features of the cavern. At these caverns they use a more natural lighting so the natural beauty of the cavern is more discernible. At most of the features that were lighted with colored lights the guide was able to turn off the colored lights and turn on a more natural lighting. The tour guide let us take as long as we wanted at each area of the caverns and answered all our questions.
This is a great place to visit, the only regret we have is that two of the attractions, "American Celebration on Parade" and "The Yellow Barn", are seasonal and our visit was about a week and a half before they open. We enjoyed this experience enough to return, so we may do so at a time when everything is open.
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Luray Caverns
We had visited Luray Caverns in Luray, VA a number of years ago. We, especially Dale, remembered it as being really beautiful. We decided to visit it again.
We do not know if we remember it incorrectly or if it has changed a lot. We remembered that there were quite a few people on the first tour, but nothing like the 100 or so on this tour. We also remembered that there was some colored lights but that it was mostly a more natural lighting. This time we did not notice any natural type lighting.
We were in the front third of the tour group so about 30 people in front of us. At most of the stops along the way we could not get close enough to hear the guide very well nor to see what the guide was pointing out. We definitely could not ask questions. So we basically ended up looking at formations on our own as we walked along. We do not know what the 70 or so people behind us was able to hear or see.
Like we mentioned there was very little if any natural lighting. I guess someone who likes gaudy show lights would think the caverns are beautiful. We, especially Ernie, are not among the people who like the gaudiness. Ernie thinks that using white lighting would be more natural to see it as God intended when he created it. People can not improve on the beauty of God's creation.
Hundreds of thousands of people visit Luray Caverns every year and it is on all the must visit lists of caverns in the US, so there are a lot of people who enjoy visiting it. We remember enjoying it the first visit, but not much on this visit. We did not have the camera with us so there are no pictures.
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Skyline Caverns
Skyline Caverns in Front Royal, VA was another really good place to visit. The tour was almost a personal tour, there was one young lady on the tour with us. A lot of the lighting was the colored lighting that Ernie in particular can do without, but again the tour guide was able to switch to a more natural light at a lot of places, though not as much so as at Shenandoah Caverns enough to make the tour great.
A somewhat unique feature of Skyline Caverns is clusters of Anthodite. This is a crystal-like white formation that forms needle-like appendages. According to sites such as wikipedia, the only other caverns in the US to have abundant anthodite displays are Carlsbad Caverns in New Mexico and Craighead Caverns in Tennessee.
Another nice feature is an underground river with a small waterfall. Though we did not see any, the tour guide told us that there are rainbow trout and a few small bass in the river.
A feature Ernie really liked was that the passages in general are narrower than most places. They are not claustrophobic narrow, but are more like what you see in pictures of cave exploration. Some areas reminded us of a slot canyon. It made Ernie feel more like he was exploring the cave. Though not as beautiful as Shenandoah or as grand as Carlsbad we found this to be as enjoyable of a tour as those are.
There are a couple of attractions that we may have done if we had small children with us: Mini Train Ride and Mirror Maze. Each is reasonably priced at $6.00 per person. There is also a free ½ mile nature trail. We did not do any of these. We may have done the nature trail, but we were getting hungry and wanted to get into town to get something to eat. Other than a few snacks, there is no food available at the caverns.
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apr 19 2019