July 27, 2012 Luray Caverns

We drove off Skyline drive down to Luray to see the caverns.  John took me for my birthday season.

On the way out of the campground this doe and fawn  were in the road, and there were a bunch of cars stopped,  people all over photographing them , the view up the valley of Old Rag Top mountain

Before the Luray turn off is this tunnel on Skyline drive that has a 12 foot 8 inch clearance, the bus is 12 foot, 6 inches. We wanted to check it out before we brought the bus down. Black eyed Susan's  on the grounds of Luray Caverns, seen while waiting in line, there were a lot of people, curio shops, ice cream parlors, zip line, etc., etc.

The caverns are unbelievable. Worth putting up with the crowds. Rooms up to 10 stories tall, Orange, yellow and whites. And huge formations. This is a reflection of the ceiling in the lake. The second one is more formations. The ceilings are more stalactites , hanging over your head. We had to hope they stayed there!

pillars and pure white draperies, cave bacon in the center. The tour took an hour and we walked a mile and a quarter. There were 30-50 people in each tour group that left every 5-10 minutes.

Massive stalactites, towers, pillars,  huge cave drapery

These are so huge, I had John stand in front of one so you could see how big it is.

The cathedral room with the  Stalacpipe Organ in the center, which is reportedly the worlds largest musical instrument. It uses specially tuned stalactites to produce music of symphonic quality. The second shot is a blurred photo of one of the stalactite mechanisms . It taps the stalactite and a microphone picks up the sound. It sounds really nice.

Unbelievable formations. It was the best cavern we have ever been to. The classic car museum was included in the ticket. It was very good too.

They had this one acre maze too, but you had to pay extra and we had had enough crowds. We returned to Shenandoah.

The highest point of the drive, 3680 feet. The highest peak is a little over 4000 feet. Evening light in the forest. Mostly oak and hickory in this area.

It rained, John sent me out to find a rainbow. The trees are so thick I had to hike a ways on the Appalachian trail to get a tiny view point. I saw this fawn right off the trail.

The rainbow over Skyline drive, the top line is Skyline drive, the second is a rock band. It runs right along the crest of the Blue Ridge Mountains. Here is a view of  the mountains.

Sunlight thru the azalea trees, ferns and rocks.