Luray Caverns, Virginia

Camping near Luray for an extended period made the Luray Caverns an understandable location for one of our fieldtrips. The cavern was discovered in 1878, and opened for tours a mere three months later. I was impressed that almost the entire cave surface was decorated with formations. Because early tourists were encouraged to break off stalactites for souvenirs during the first few decades of operation, some areas of the caverns suffered obvious damage. But on a whole it was an underground wonderland. Some of the neatest features were the reflecting pool, giant columns and flowstones, the 'wishing well', and the 'stalacpipe' organ.