Discovering a Hidden World at the Luray Caverns
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Luray is charming, beautiful and quiet… and if you’re brave enough to venture into the caverns beneath it, you’ll also find an otherworldly place of wonder.
Luray, Virginia
There is simply something mystical about the small towns which hide away in America’s valleys. Secluded from the influence of major metropolitan cities, many of these towns foster unique atmospheres with the flow of life running at a slower rate than many of us are accustomed to. That is how Luray welcomed us during this November, just as the trees showed off their last few days of stunning autumn coloration. Nestled in an alcove of the Shenandoah Valley, the 360° views of the Blue Ridge Mountains are hard not to spot and even more difficult to stop staring at. Place this charming little area just 15 minutes out of Shenandoah National Park, and it is the perfect place to rest your hat as you absorb the endless views and outdoors experiences that Shenandoah has to offer you.
Drew and I were fortunate enough to secure a last minute campsite at Luray’s Jellystone Resort which had a clear view of the amber to crimson hues that the eastern rolling hills flaunted every morning. It was a show best enjoyed over morning coffee, just as the sun began to crest over the tree line. We quickly discovered that, although Jellystone Resorts are designed for family oriented vacations, two adolescently minded adults can just as easily enjoy the endless mini-golf tournaments, and take advantage of a midday break in the work day to get a few minutes of exercise on their jumping pillows. Most of our nights were spent by the fire as we soaked in the stunning views and listened to the rustle of the leaves blow by our feet. It never failed to create a lullaby that put us both to sleep.
These jumping pillows were right next to our campsite and were a welcomed distraction from work. You can even see our breathtaking view of the mountains in the background.
On the occasions that we ventured out of the campground to enjoy the season from atop the mountains, the appetite that our hiking generated led us to the ordering window of Triple Crown BBQ. This restaurant, which is actually more akin to a small food truck rather than a sit down establishment, provides undisputed proof that if you are ever driving down a highway and see a casual sign advertising barbeque next to a crowd of people, you best believe that pulling over to try said barbeque is a wise decision. Over the course of two meals, we devoured enormous servings of smoky pulled pork sandwiches, apple spiced baked beans, sugar topped cornbread muffins, and slow cooked ribs that practically melted in our mouths.
We adored our seven night stop in Luray, and as a town best known for its scenery, it should not be overlooked how dynamic its views actually are. While many of its visitors spend much of their day staring up at the surrounding mountains, perhaps an even more spectacular display waits for them under their feet. The Luray Caverns is one of mother nature’s best art shows, and it sits quietly under the town, a 400 million year old masterpiece.
Origins of the Luray Caverns
At 64 acres, the Luray Caverns is the largest discovered cavern in the northeastern United States. It is an extensive cave system that is open every day of the year to allow visitors to lose themselves in this otherworldly labyrinth. While wandering through its tunnels, Drew and I became utterly transfixed by the cavern’s extensive collection of calcite formed stalactites which ornament its ceilings and walls.
The story of how Luray Caverns came to be follows several distinct paths depending on the time scale that is considered. Many would ascertain that the caverns were first discovered by a group of five Euro-Americans in 1878 who went looking for it after noticing a cold breeze that was coming out of a nearby sinkhole. On August 13th, after just four hours of digging, a small opening to the caverns were uncovered and Andrew J. Campbell along with John “Quint” Campbell became the first men to explore the caverns by candlelight. If we choose to consider the history prior to European Colonization though, and I can think of no reason why we shouldn’t, then it ought to be noted that the local native populations knew of its existence long before this fateful day.
Here I am taking in the surrounding scenery. I loved marveling at the marbled coloring of blended white, oranges and greens.
Even with this inclusion, however, it remains impossible to understand how a cavern so grand and so stunning came to exist in the first place. For that, we must go back an estimated 400 million years to a time when the cavern was still a soil deposit of limestone and clay. It was the Devonian Period, a phase from ancient earth when plants were quickly colonizing the land in the creation of extensive forests while the first amphibians grew legs and crawled out of the oceans. It was a remarkable time, but for this story, we are much more interested in what was happening under the soil.
Where the Luray Caverns is located today, an influx of water from a nearby water source disproportionately eroded a large clay deposit, eventually leaving only a limestone shell remaining. With limestone itself being slightly soluble, the flowing water which continued to seep into the cave became saturated with leached minerals from the limestone bedrock, minerals that would escape this solution when they came in contact with oxygen as droplets began to fall from the cave ceiling. The collection of ceiling clinging stalactites and ground perching stalagmites are the result of this gradual mineral accumulation, at the spot of these drips, over the course of centuries. Growing at a rate of one cubic inch every 120 years, the oldest formation within the cavern is thought to be seven million years old and stands at an intimidating 40 feet tall.
An Otherworldly Experience
The Luray Caverns are recognized today as a registered natural landmark. It is open 365 days a year for tourists to walk through the mile-long, dizzying path which leads them past Martian-like landmarks. Both a crowd and personal favorite is Dream Lake, the biggest body of water within the cavern walls. It is fed through a nearby spring and pools at a central basin within the cavern to create a near perfect reflection of the overhanging stalactites. It’s a hypnotizing image, making the water appear as though it is several feet deep, containing unusually pointed stalagmites, when in fact the lake never exceeds 20 inches in depth even in its wettest months.
Dream Lake is one of the most appropriately named features in the cavern. It was hard to walk away from this view, Drew and I both feeling like we could stare at it all day long.
Dream Lake also feeds the downstream Wishing Well, the deepest body of water in the cavern at seven feet deep, and colored a striking, luminescent blue. Visitors can place their hopes within a lucky penny and toss it into the well where it will sit until the annual date where the money is collected and the proceeds then donated to local charities and organizations of scientific and medical research.
Coins and dollar bills can be seen in this picture as they coat the bottom of the Wishing Well. It is one of the most beautiful areas in the cavern as well as a feature with a noble purpose.
With the Luray Caverns creating what seems to be a world all its own, it feels slightly ironic that it would hold an official world record. The world’s largest musical instrument is appropriately named The Great Stalacpipe Organ, and sits in the corner of one of the largest chambers within the cavern. It was invented in 1956 by the musician Leland W. Sprinkle who became inspired by a tour guide who demonstrated the musical tones produced when the stalactites were struck with a rubber mallet. Over the next three years, Sprinkle would wire electric mallets to stalactites throughout 3 ½ acres of the caverns, connecting them to a central four-manual organ. Whenever a key is pressed on the organ, a small mallet taps the corresponding stalactite to create tones that are projected throughout the ballroom. You can hear The Great Stalacpipe Organ play music autonomously on any visit to the caverns, and is still operational for manual performances which occasionally, yet rarely, still occur.
I found the Stalacpipe Organ both haunting and beautiful. It reminded me of an instrument that the Phantom of the Opera would like playing.
In the year 1880, the Smithsonian Institute released a statement: “There is probably no other cave in the world more completely and profusely decorated with stalactite and stalagmite ornamentation than that of Luray.” It is no wonder that upwards of 500,000 people visit the Luray Caverns to marvel at its uniquely defined beauty. It is a natural wonder hidden under one of The United State’s most charming towns.
For those who have the patience, if you are able to stay still in the caverns for long enough, every once in a while, there is a break in the crowd. It is in these moments of quiet that you can look out into the and pretend that you are walking on alien soil. The Luray Caverns is perhaps the closest thing humanity will get to living on Mars within this generation.
The Discoveries are Endless at the Luray Caverns
There is something mind bending about visiting the Luray Caverns. Its foreign appearance is unlike anything else we can see above the earth’s surface, and the age of its structures nearly impossible to comprehend. Perhaps this is what makes it so spectacular. By forcing visitors to consider that the earth is much grander and stranger than many of us give it credit for, that it is overflowing with undiscovered, hidden beauty, and that it is far older than the existence of the human race, it strikes us with the reality that we are not the greatest force in the universe.
In one of the moments we had to ourselves while in the cavern, I caught Drew wandering through the halls. It felt as though we could get lost in there.
So many of us want to change the world, to create works of art or invent new technologies that are remembered forever. However, I think it’s likely that the world does not need changing, and that it was creating masterpieces without our help for the overwhelming majority of its lifetime. That is not to say that we shouldn’t try, but rather to encourage you to find the beauty all around you that Mother Nature herself is constantly reiterating. We are the ones with lessons to learn, lessons of patience, lessons of acceptance, and lessons of humility. Luray awaits to share with you the potential that the earth has without any interference, and try as I might, this experience cannot be captured in its fullest grandiosity on film itself. For that, I’ll have to encourage you to take a trip to the town of Luray and to discover the Luray Caverns for yourself.
Thank you for joining us at Discovery Detour, where the destination is always unknown.
