Wednesday, December 30th (morning)- Virginia from below

BEGINNING: Front Royal, VA
END: Williamsburg, VA
STOPPING IN: Luray, VA; Skyline Drive
ROUTE: US 340 to US 211 to Skyline Drive to US 33 to US 15 to I-64 to VA 143

As you probably remember, the weekend before Christmas was a gigantic blizzard for the entire Northeast corridor from Virginia to Massachusetts. Major cities, especially Washington, DC, were almost completely shut down, and it took major efforts to get roads drivable (or, in the case of Long Island, get major roads semi-drivable, and you're on your own on the side roads). Since we would be possibly near the area, I had wanted to drive Skyline Drive, the touring road through Shenandoah National Park. I've already driven on I-81, and it would certainly be more memorable to use this than mere highways, and we had no rush to get to Williamsburg. Given that it's a scenic road on top of mountains which serves no commercial or transport purposes and got over 2 feet of snow dumped on it, it was unsurprisingly closed down during the weekend. It remained closed through Sunday, the last day I had Internet access. However, I saw that there was a phone number which suggested you call before you planned on heading out, and I put that in my cell to try in the morning if the weather cooperated.

Skyline drive is about 100 miles long, and divided into three sections about 35 miles long. The first section begins in Front Royal, less than a mile from the hotel and right next to Skyline Caverns. The second section begins at US 211 near Luray, right by Luray Caverns. Since we planned on going to both of these, I was hoping that one of these two sections would be open for a convenient scenic route (although I would have driven down US 340 to Elkton to get to the third US 33 entrance). Luckily for us, the weather did cooperate, and there was no additional snow. I called when I woke up at around 8, and Skyline Drive was plowed and open for the second section, from Thornton Gap (US 211, mile 31) to Swift Run Gap (US 33, mile 65). We had our route- hit both caverns, go on the drive, and then meander our way down to Williamsburg.


We managed to survive our rather sketchy hotel and get up and out for Skyline Caverns' first tour at 9. (We had gone by the day before since we got to Front Royal at around 5, and saw their hours.) We were the only two people there, so we got a personal tour from our personable tour guide, James. Skyline Caverns was formed by an underground water channel, so it's fairly easily navigable and contains fascinating rock formations and columns. It's not a flashy cavern, but thoroughly enjoyable and made more enjoyable by our tour guide (more about this later). The top picture is of us in the lobby- as you can see, there aren't giant formations- instead, there are subtly beautiful stalactites, stalagmites, and columns, with some lovely wall coloration and stratification from mud buildup.

By far the most fascinating part of the caverns was the Anthodite room. Anthodites are incredibly rare, small white snowflake-like formations. No one knows how they form, but it's likely their formation requires a vacuum (which the room was before it was discovered). Because they are so brittle, the caverns had put mesh over them and separated them from the rest of the caverns by a door with a stern warning that the formations were Protected By Virginia Law. If you click on the image on the left to enlarge it, you can see these anthodites. This cave houses both the largest anthodite and the largest concentration of them, and seeing these made the caverns worthwhile.

While at Skyline, we mentioned that we were going down to Luray Caverns. Both the tour guide and a manager just kinda rolled their eyes and said it had changed since I had been there last (which was November 2008). I wasn't quite sure why, and given that it was morning, I wasn't really hearing why it was different, and mentally attributed . Regardless, we meandered down US 340. Running between the famed Skyline Drive on its east and the more functional I-81 on its west, the road didn't gather much traffic. However, with the Shenandoah park on our left and the Massanutten Mountains on the right, it was a quietly beautiful highway, not unlike driving US 40 in Colorado (except with more rounded peaks and about 6,000 feet lower). We got to Luray, and hopped over on US 211 to the cavern site. We soon saw the difference- Luray had shifted to a self-guided audio tour rather than individual guided tours. After you paid, you were directed to pick up a headset, which had a number pad. You then went down into the cave, and along the pathway there were 19 "stations" that you typed numbers into that gave information.

I had three major problems with this style. First, it was much more impersonal than the Skyline Caverns. Part of the fun of a guided tour is that the guide injects his or her own spin on the caves. The silly names for formations that have come out of spending too much time looking at them, the random banter, and either the collection of personalities around you or the intimacy of a private tour, all of these were gone and replaced by officially sanctioned dialogue at specific times which came with its own incredibly cheesy music. Second, there were little kids (and adult idiots) who wouldn't know not to touch stuff. Tour guides help maintain the cave's beauty by providing a presence which ensures things aren't touched. Although they are assumedly going off the idea of safety in numbers, I saw a few kids who wouldn't think twice about touching stuff even though doing so is quite dangerous to the delicate cave environs. Nor was I completely convinced the adults would be completely respectful. Third, you were very aware that you were in a commercial enterprise. Part of viewing the magnificence of natural beauty is the idea of exploration, the creation of meaning through spontaneous interaction. I have enough stress and business in my life in impersonal, constructed architecture. I know I am surrounded by innumerable natural beauty, and I want to be free to personally, unhastenedly, and reverently sanctify it, meditate on it, create my own meaning from it. An audio tour with stations insists that visitors get only one meaning from the tour, rather than allowing them, with their tour guide, to form their own opinions of what is noteworthy and beautiful. Given that the Luray Caverns contains some of the most glorious terrestrial beauty I have ever seen, this is a particular shame. It's a bit like putting spotlights in Niagara Falls (which, if you saw the Ken Burns' National Parks documentary, was the strawman for the immoral exploitation of natural wonder). I would rather my experience with nature seem like prayer and meditation than commerce.


Despite my misgivings for how the Luray Caverns conducts their tours, the immense beauty of the caverns cannot be denied. The caverns are almost 450 million years old, and its age has allowed for the creation of a vast array of absolutely gorgeous mineral formations. Simple stalactites and stalagmites seem almost cliche compared with the grandeur of flowstone, massive fallen rocks, and gargantuan columns. There are almost too many fascinating formations to mention, so I'll show pictures of three of them. The first, on the left, is a massive piece of flowstone, thin, striated mineral formations which curve and fold over, looking like large pieces of bacon (on the left) or a folded washcloth (the right). The pieces are probably 12-14 feet from ceiling to tip, and no more than a 1/4 inch thick. The second is a massive column
called the Redwood, and it is certainly the redwood of columns, a massive, sprawling formation that is untold millions of years old. Last, and the reason I had gone there the first time, was the Great Stalacpipe Organ. Given that they are essentially cylinders protruding from the ceiling, stalactites will produce faint pitches if struck with a mallet. In the 1950s, a Pentagon scientist managed to find stalactites whose pitches correspond to a three-octave keyboard, placed rubber mallets (so as not to damage them) on them, placed tiny microphones, and wired them to a keyboard. I encouraged
Bethany to ask if she could play it, since she's an organist. We found out from a guide that it hadn't been played for three years. Because the organ is based on natural stalactites from all over the cave, different notes have different delay times, which means that you would have to significantly renotate a piece to get the pitches to sound in order. As it was, they had a recording of the organ playing "Ein Feste Burg ist Unser Gott," which was barely recognizable (and this is to music majors who have played this melody for classes and congregations!)

There are many other formations, like the Giants Room, the Fried Eggs, and so forth that we didn't document. Needless to say, the Luray Caverns are awe-inspiring. It was fascinating to us how different our cave experiences were. We both felt Luray Caverns was clearly the more beautiful and interesting cave, but Skyline offered the better experience. Basically, I recommend seeing both. After we exited the Luray caverns, we were given tickets to their old vehicle museum. Apparently caves and the requisite geode and gem stores aren't enough for the caverns- Skyline had a maze and some dragon thing which were both closed for the season, and I'm not sure what old cars had to do with caves or anything. But Bethany wanted to poke in, so we did. It was more interesting than I experienced, but it was good for about 10-15 minutes before we were satiated with old cars. We drove into Luray for gas and food, and then brought Rita up the mountainside to get onto Skyline Drive.