The Luray Caverns are the third largest in the country. There are a number of caverns in this part of Appalachia. Everyone we talked to told us the Luray Caverns were the best. While we haven't seen the other caverns in the area, we found the Luray Caverns fantastic!
The first picture shows a mirror image: the top half of the picture is actual stalactites while the bottom half is a reflection in a pool of water not more than 18 inches deep. Even standing right beside the pool, it was hard to tell it was a pool.
The second photo is of formation called a drapery. You can easily see why. While it is actually a rock formation, some parts are thin enough for light to shine through. The one in the center of the photo, called the towel, is only one-quarter of an inch thick.
The final photo is a small piece of a pretty amazing story. An electronics engineer built a pipe organ deep in the caverns which uses the stalactites as pipes. He used a tuning fork to find the right "tone" in the rocks. Then he mounted a solenoid which could be activated to tap the rock creating its "note." It took him three years to find the right sounding rocks to complete the keyboard. The guide demonstrated while we watched the solenoid in the picture being "played" several times during "A Mighty Fortress Is Our God." The guide's line is that the organ has only one shortcoming: it plays only "rock" music!
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