Retired Nomads - Part 2 : Luray Caverns & Shenandoah National

Luray Caverns & Shenandoah National – VA - July 9

We left early in hopes of seeing a bear. We saw 3 small critters that didn’t let us get a good enough look to ID them. We did stop at a couple of the viewpoints since it was such a bright sunny day. At one stop there was an artist there painting the landscape.

We stopped to do a 1.5 mile easy trail and we did see quite a few birds, but they weren’t easy to see or photograph. We heard something walking in the woods and we finally saw that a deer was right there next to us. She laid down (well camouflaged), but never took her eyes off us.

young Dark-eyed Junco

not sure what this young Dark-eyed Junco is doing....

it was fine since it did fly away

young American Redstart

American Redstart

Blue-headed Vireo

After our hike we stopped at the same lodge for lunch with the Poutine Tots and this time we split the Hot Nashville Chicken Tenders and Crab Cakes.

We then drove to Luray to visit the Luray Caverns. We weren’t expecting much, but WOW! Other than Carlsbad Caverns, this is one of the nicest we have seen. Luray Caverns is the largest and most popular caverns in Eastern America. Who knew? Anyway, if you find yourself in this neck of the woods, check it out.

The guided tour is 1.3 miles with cathedral-sized rooms with ceilings 10-stories high with towering stone formations in many colors. The Smithsonian said “There’s nothing more beautiful than these scarves, shawls, lambrequins of translucent calcite, some white as snow, falling in graceful folds, fringed with a thousand patterns, and so thin that a candle held behind one of them reveals all the structure within.”

Luray Singing Tower

The most beautiful room has a shallow lake that reflects a mirror image of the stalactites hanging from the ceiling. Just surreal.

this one is called "the ghost" since you see it several times throughout the tour

One other really cool thing was The Great Stalacpipe Organ. It is the world’s largest musical instrument. It literally makes stalactites sing by gently tapping them throughout three acres of the caverns. It was a beautiful sound.

you can see the wires on the stalactites

wishing well - proceeds go to charity

formations called "eggs" or oysters on the half shell

The only negative to the tour was that they allowed dogs on the tour. A couple of them barked so you couldn’t hear the guide and one cried and whined like it was scared the whole time. No, they were not service dogs. 2 were Dachshunds the other a cute fluffy one.

There were also a few museums that were included with the admission which seemed cheesy, but they were pretty good. One was a Toy Museum showing toys of old. The other one was a small Car & Carriage Caravan which had some pretty neat vehicles. We remarked that we saw things that weren’t at The Henry Ford. Not sure why they were in this little museum, but it was nice.

The other museum was the Luray Valley Museum which chronicles the history of the Shenandoah Valley. It also includes a seven-acre recreation of a small 19th century farming community.