Luray Caverns!

Visited the Luray Caves in Virginia last week! It was a lovely experience and shows again how tourism can be tapped! I went with family friends from Nigeria who talked of the Ogbunike caves in Arochukwu, Abia State in Eastern Nigeria. I wonder how much revenue is generated by visitors to the caves.

The pictures I took do not do justice to the caverns. They were huge and made up of massive stalactites and stalagmites! They were a beauty to behold! I tried to record the tunes from the Stalacpipe Organ which is the world's largest musical instrument but it was not as clear as it sounded.

Enjoy the pictures and visit the websites linked above!


A side view of the Garden Maze! It was too hot to look for any treasures in the maze, spent 5minutes and gave up, no one wanted to get lost under the hot sun:)



A view of the parking lot and the hills!

Despite the warnings, many people still touched the formations!

Stalactites! Hold tight:) A clue to remembering what the formations hanging from the roof are called!


The fish market:) The formations here are active, dripping water and are arranged in rows like fish in a fish market! That was what the guide told us!

The beauty may not be appreciated in this picture! I need a better camera:)

Our guide explaining some fine detail at one of the stops on our tour, we walked 1 mile and a quarter underground!

Through the caves we go! It was so cool, the temperature below must have been in the 50's (Fahrenheit) while above it was over 100!

A pool reflected the formations above, producing a really lovely effect!

More reflected formations!

more....


More reflections....



Pluto's ghost, a formation seen from several places in the cavern! Those who first discovered the cave thought a ghost was after them after seeing it almost everywhere they went in the cavern! Remember there was no electricity in their time in the 1870's!

beautiful formations!

Pluto's ghost from another angle!

People in the cave!

The tree trunk said to have fallen during an earthquake! The number of years it had fallen was calculated by the layers of CaCo3 dripping on it from the side, 1cubic cm is said to take 300 years to form!

A cascade!




The towel rack! Formations like drapes or towels on a rack!


The Stalacpipe Organ!


Wires connecting the organ to the Stalactites!

The Wishing well which is drained once a year and the monies are donated to medical research!

List of beneficiaries of the wishing well!
The fried eggs! This is the base of stalagmites which were cut! They have a fried egg appearance!

A tribute to fallen servicemen from the county where Luray caverns is situated!


Back on top!
Spent almost two hours underground! Will post pictures of the car museum sometime soon!

Comments

  1. just realised the theme pix of your blog is the tail of an airplane! Tells your story well...Ajala!

    ReplyDelete

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