Places to visit in Virginia - Luray Caverns

Does exploring caves excites you?
Are you interested in knowing what lies beneath the earth?
Do you love structures which are evolving from past millions of years?

Even if your answer to all of the above questions is No, I am sure this nature’s wonder will definitely excite, thrill and will make you fall in love with it.

Luray Caverns is the largest and most popular caverns in Eastern America, situated deep beneath Virginia’s Blue Ridge Mountains.

It was discovered in 1878 and from then it has been visited by millions of tourists across the globe.

Main attractions

The main attractions here are -:
1. Luray Caverns
2. Car and Carriage Caravan Museum
3. Luray Valley Museum
4. The Garden Maze
5. Rope Adventure Park

My Experience

I took the general admission ticket which included Luray Caverns tour, a self-guided tour of the Car and Carriage Caravan and access to the Luray Valley Museum.
If you want to visit “The Garden Maze” and “Rope Adventure Park”, you will have to pay separately for them.

Coming back to Luray Caverns, I was excited to see what lies inside and here is what I saw.
Have you seen or read about limestone, marble or gypsum rocks or structures hanging down from the roof or towering up from the floor ? If yes, then imagine 4-5 times the size of them in real, infront of your eyes.

There will be structures from size of your hand to 10 stories high.
You will come across big cathedral sized rooms filled with countless massive crystalline cascades, towering stone columns and shimmering draperies.

Along with these magnificent structures, there are also crystal clear pools which provides a stunning reflection of these stalactites which is just magical. You won’t be able to believe that it is actually a reflection or not in real.

Finally “The Great Stalacpipe organ”, which is also one of the largest musical instruments in the world. The Great Stalacpipe Organ appears at first to be a normal organ, but instead of using pipes, the organ is wired to soft rubber mallets poised to gently strike stalactites of varying lengths and thicknesses.

Last but not the least, the wishing well. Wishing well are always considered as magical, bringing luck and good fortune. The 6 foot deep pool at Luray Caverns is no less. More than 1 million dollars have been donated to charities till date and the funds are ever increasing. I also dropped a dollar and waiting for some magic to happen ;)

Tickets & Fees
The general admission ticket is $28 for an adult which includes Luray Caverns tour, a self-guided tour of the Car and Carriage Caravan and access to the Luray Valley Museum.

Connectivity
The Luray Caverns is very well connected and easily accessible.
Also there is lot of parking space available.

Food
There are couple of cafés inside the campus so you can have a meal there.

Stay
Luray Caverns is just 25 miles from the town of Front Royal where there are a lot of decent motels available.

Now time for some gyan from Explorer Lens
1. Trying going a bit early so that you can take good pictures of the magnificent structures, otherwise
    there will be always people popping in.
2. If you are using a DSLR, trying using an external flash to get better pics of the stalactites.
3. You can cover both Skyline drive of Shenandoah National Park and Luray Caverns on a single day
    and avoid paying for an extra day of your stay.

 Here are some funny and unique structures that I found here -:

Do you think its a dog ?

Do you see a face here, probably some babaji ?

How would these two work as the front pillars of your house ?

Would you mind having them as the chandeliers in your house ?