Luray Caverns

 The Luray Caverns

Izzy

8/10/2021

    Today we got to visit the Luray Caverns! On our way back to D.C. from the Eagle’s Nest, we stopped in Luray, Virginia. The caverns seem to be the only attraction in that small town which is why they advertised for it with about 10 giant billboards along the freeway. 

    The Luray Caverns were first discovered on August 13th, 1874 by William Campbell, Andrew Campbell, and Benton Stebbins. They discovered the caverns from a quarter-sized sink hole in the ground and they felt the cold air coming out of it. That small sink hole was widened to create the entrance that we went in through. 

This is the entrance to the caverns.

    When you start going down into the caverns, you see the stalagmites and stalactites all around you. The caverns are estimated to be around 450 million years old. It was so crazy to see it all because they were so big and were so crazy looking that it seemed fake. According to the pamphlet, stalagmites and stalactites are created when, “Water mixed with carbon dioxide from the atmosphere creates a mild carbonic acid in the soil. When that solution seeps through the ground, coming in contact with the limestone layers, the acid hollows out the bedrock creating these cavern rooms. By slowly eroding the weaker minerals, the harder minerals are left behind. These are the walls and ceilings. As water continues to drip into the chambers, the carbon dioxide is released, and the droplet crystallizes. Resulting formations are called speleothems.” The rounded formations on the floor are stalagmites and the thin, pointy ones hanging from the ceiling are the stalactites. The crazy part is that they only grow one cubic inch ever 120 years!! There were many different formations and sizes throughout the different rooms of the caverns.

    My two favorite parts of the caverns were the Dream Lake and the Fried Eggs. The Dream Lake was a shallow lake that made a perfect mirror reflection of the the stalactites on the ceiling. The reflection makes it look like there are a bunch of underwater stalagmites when the lake is actually only 18 to 20 inches at it’s deepest. It was so cool looking because it really did look like there were underwater stalagmites! It’s also the largest body of water in the caverns and covers 2,500 square feet. The Fried Eggs are two stalagmites that were shaved off when they widened the tunnel. I liked them because they really do look like fried eggs!

This is the Dream Lake. What looks like underwater stalagmites is actually the reflection of the ceiling.

These are the Fried Eggs.

    The Giant Redwood is the largest and oldest formation. It is a huge formation that is 40 feet tall and 120 feet in circumference. It’s also estimated to be over 7 million years old. We learned that they used to hold dances in one room called the Cathedral. The Cathedral houses The Great Stalacpipe Organ which is the largest musical instrument in the world. The stalactites are gently tapped and the vibrations of the stalactites sends a signal to the instrument that creates “the electrical equivalent its tone.” We heard it play and it was cool that it was coming from the stalactites. One other cool sight was the wishing well, the deepest body of water in the caverns. It is 6 feet deep but the bottom will be covered in 2 to 3 feet of coins by the end of the year. The coins are collected and donated. So far, over $1.2 million has been collected from the Wishing Well. We all got to throw a coin in too. Overall, it was a really cool and memorable experience to learn about stalagmites and stalactites!

The Wishing Well