I Love Caves! Grand Caverns, VA.

I love caves; they are dark and cool and usually pretty calm.  When Jeff and I first moved to New Jersey, it seemed that we went to lots of caves and caverns on the weekends, especially in Pennsylvania.  They were nice, cool and we learned a lot.

As you may remember, I am not fond of bats.  I am referring to my post from April entitled "It's Kinda Like Camping".  However, even though the cave is a bat's natural habitat, it still doesn't scare me off.  I know that they are an integral part of our ecosystem, but they still creep me out.

Nothing we had seen prior to this trip prepared us for the Grand Caverns in Virginia.  We have passed through Virginia a number of times and seen the signs for the Grand Caverns as well as Luray Caverns but never stopped.  We were always too busy. So glad we have stopped "being busy".

Jeff and I try to split the days fairly evenly between his riding days and my sightseeing days.  It is a little painful for my soul that I can't go sightseeing without him, unless it's a guided tour with minimal walking. I checked out a number of things that I wanted to see near Harrisonburg, Virginia and the Grand Caverns kept popping up on my radar.  I looked into it and the tour was about an hour and a half of walking, but they would allow me to use my cane.  Even though there were quite a few stairs, there weren't too many at one time.  I figured I'd better go for it while I still could.

I am so glad we did this tour.  I understand why Grand Caverns is the #2 show cave in the country (second only to Carlsbad Caverns).  Not only are the caverns exquisite, they have been established so that you can have the cave experience without crawling on your hands and knees or being squished between the walls.  We already knew quite a bit about stalagmites and stalactites, but now we learned about draperies, shields and cave bacon!  I also love anything to do with bacon!

Above: a little slab of cave bacon.

There is a pool that reflects the stalactites above it that looks like the Manhattan skyline.  Unfortunately, it doesn't photograph well.  it is amazing to see.  There is a stalagmite in the middle of one of the rooms that from a distance appears to be George Washington.  Grand Caverns is also known as the oldest show cave in the country.  It has been available for public view since 1806 and was a place for Civil War soldiers from both sides to take their RNR.  Many of them signed one of the walls in the cavern.

The "ghost" of George Washington...not very scary close up.

In the 1800s, dances and soirees were actually held in the section of the cave known as the Grand Ballroom.  There are smaller anterooms adjacent to the ballroom where the women would change into their finery.  The room would be lit with candles, a table with food and drink laid out and the highest levels of society would be invited to these events.  Me, I would get a little claustrophobic in that kind of situation, but the romantic in me loves envisioning it.

The changing room for the Grand Ballroom.

My pictures cannot do justice to the beauty of this cave.  However, the ipad definitely takes better photos in this environment than many of the others in our tour group.

The Bridal Veil is on the right. I think every cave system has at least one of these, lol.

At the end I was tired and struggling to walk, but it was most assuredly worth it.  Amazing natural beauty.