We hiked down a couple hundred feet overall from the surface and saw some really cool rock formations. There were stalagmites and stalactites as well as a few other interesting creations from billions of years ago. As soon as we got down there our guide informed us that we'd be down there for about an hour and be walking for a mile and a quarter. My first thought was, "I hope there's a quick way out for us when the kids get bored."
This picture below was a small lake that perfectly reflected the ceiling. It was really impressive in person. It gave the appearance of being quite deep, but in fact it was only about 10 inches.
The columns inside were really impressive. There was so much space! They even had a few areas that had been paved with bricks that they allowed weddings to take place in. It was very beautiful. In the biggest "room" someone had crafted an organ into the stalactites. Using electrical pulses, a rubber mallet would softly tap the different formations to create the proper tones. They briefly played us a song.
There was even a wishing well. I was surprised that they allowed people to toss coins into this pool. The water turned green from all of the copper pennies. Apparently once a year they collect the change and donate it to charity. They've raised over a million dollars.
Thankfully all of the kids stayed entertained for the entire walk. After climbing almost 70 stairs to get back to the surface, I was a little bit tired myself. Our tickets included entrance into two other small museums on the property. One was all about cars. It started with old wagons and carriages and then chronologically showed cars as they developed. It was interesting to see some really old cars.
The other museum was all about the old ways of life in the valley. It had old furniture, guns, and other household items from the 1800's. My kids really weren't interested so we went through it pretty fast. Then we headed outside where we played with this mining replication. We liked floating the sifters down the "river". It was crazy hot outside with like 95% humidity, so any splashing in water was welcome. Unfortunately, we got in trouble with a cranky worker so we had to move on.
We found a cool stump to take some pics. We tried our best to get a family selfie. Didn't work so well this time.
On our way back towards home we stopped at The Shenandoah River State Park to explore a bit. We were hoping to find a place where we could play in the river or throw rocks in. We ended up leaving after a short time. There weren't really any good places there and it was really hot.
The scenery was beautiful though. Glad we made the trip. We stopped at Spelunkers on the way home for burgers and frozen custard. It was a fun day!
No comments:
Post a Comment