Worth a Visit? Yes -

It was only a matter of time until we visited "the beautiful caverns of Luray." We'd learned that the Luray Caverns are probably the second most important economic engine in Page County - they bring in 600K tourists per year (agriculture is more important, but readers are welcome to correct me). So on Sunday, since it was raining in the morning and our hike was postponed, we took a drive over to go spelunking.

There is pretty significant lore about the caverns - they were discovered in the 1870's and are the largest ones in the area (I know of two or three other caverns in the area so far).



Here are a couple of highlight photos, with apologies for the motocam quality - which doesn't do the sites any kind of justice. There are higher quality images at http://www.luraycaverns.com/ along with descriptions of some of the related activities and development there.

The underground tour covers about a mile and a quarter and takes an hour. The route is paved, but there is a staircase down into the caverns that descends about 40 feet - it may be accessible but is not specifically advertised as such.

The third photo looks down into the "Wishing Well" - a pool of water where people are invited to through in loose change. Well over a million dollars have been donated through this feature.

Also, the town of Luray elected to put up a small memorial to its war dead down in the cavens, since more visitors are likely to see it there. There are bronze plaques in honor of the fallen from WW1 and WW2, Korea and Vietnam.

We have heard about local government meetings being held down there, dances and balls, and weddings. I have no doubt that at some point during the last 6 years, Dick Cheney has been there too.