Virginia -- In-Depth Sightseeing In Limestone Caves

NEW MARKET, Virginia - This is a real in-depth story - about 215 feet deep, to be precise.

That, you might say, was the lowest point of our trip through a pair of limestone caves in Virginia's Shenandoah Valley, a journey into a hidden world of twisty little passageways, fantastic stone shapes and weird crystalline forms - plus an occasional bat.

The Shenandoah Valley's geology resembles a piece of Swiss cheese, with something like 2,000 caves.

Six are "show caves," open to the public.

Scores of others are scattered around the country; the National Caves Association lists "show caves" in more than 20 states. (The closest to Seattle is Oregon's Sea Lion Caves.)

Most "show caves" have artificial lighting, established pathways and guides who will escort you for a fee. Such tours may lack the excitement spelunkers get from exploring uncharted caverns, but they are a lot safer and more comfortable for those of us who just stop by.

Caves offer scenery you won't find anywhere else: Stalactites, stalagmites and helictites (stalactites hang from the ceiling, stalagmites sprout from the floor and helictites grow horizontally), plus exotic features like "cave popcorn," "cave bacon," rimstone and flowstone.

Often these formations are vividly colored with minerals or sparkling with crystals, making the interior of a cave even more colorful than the countryside overhead.

Most cave features are created by the slow drip of water containing dissolved limestone, or calcite, which builds up in deposits over thousands of years. Caves themselves usually are the work of underground rivers cutting channels through faults in the rock, sometimes carving passageways of great size and length.

Shenandoah Caverns, about five miles north of the village of New Market, was discovered in 1884 by two boys who saw vapor escaping from a quarry being dug to provide fill for a new railroad.

When it opened to the public in 1922, Shenandoah Cave was accessible only by a long, steep stairway. Now it has an elevator.

A mile-long, crushed-rock pathway leads through the cave; a guided tour takes an hour and costs $8 for an adult. Though cave purists don't like it, artificial colored lighting creates unusual visual effects.

Our tour took us through chambers with outrageously hyperbolic names like "Grotto of the Gods," "Cascade Hall" "Giant's Hall," "Rainbow Lake" and "the Frost King's Palace" and ended with a hokey audio program at a feature called the "Capitol Dome."

The Shenandoah cave offers examples of "cave bacon," thin strips of rock formed in drapery-like shapes with bands of color running through them - like giant slabs of bacon.

Clusters of crystalline "cave popcorn" also can be seen, along with sparkling arrays of flowstone.

More caves

Endless Caverns, just south of New Market, features "natural" (non-colored) lighting and a path that, most of the time, follows natural surfaces. It's probably the most pristine of the Shenandoah Valley "show caves."

The cave was discovered in 1879 by two boys chasing a rabbit that disappeared into what turned out to be the mother of all rabbit holes - the cave entrance. Now there's a stairway.

Five miles of the cave have been mapped, but explorers have yet to reach the end of its narrow passages. (Guess if they did, they'd have to change its name.) Only one natural entrance is known, but the flow of air through the cave indicates there must be others.

The guided tour ($9 for adults) covers almost a mile and takes about 75 minutes. At one point the guide turned off the lights to demonstrate what total darkness inside a cave is really like.

The guide also demonstrated what early cave explorers could see by the light of a candle (not much) and what modern explorers can see by the light of a headlamp (more, but still not much).

An unusual feature is Alexander's Ballroom, a large underground chamber where the citizens of New Market once held dances, descending into the coolness of the cave to escape the summer heat. The underground river that formed the cave still flows through a deep gallery where tourists do not go, but can be seen through a fissure in the rock.

Endless Cave has spectacular arrays of stalactites, stalagmites, flowstone, shields and columns, and the non-colored lighting shows the natural colors at their best. Bats flutter through forests of stalactites or hang from the ceiling, snoozing.

The only discordant note of our Endless Caverns tour was stepping from the quiet beauty of the cave into an area of flashing lights and electronic machine-gun fire - a video-game arcade in the basement of the gift shop.

Tasteless, junk-cluttered gift shops are common at "show caves." But at least the owners of Shenandoah and Endless Caverns have resisted adding "attractions" similar to those offered at some other caves - antique-car displays, underground pipe organs, mini-golf courses, wax museums, wildlife zoos, antique farm-machinery exhibits, frontier villages, covered-wagon rides, and so on.

The National Caves Association, Rt. 9, Box 106, McMinnville, TN 37110, publishes a directory of "show caves" of which most have their own descriptive brochures. By reading these brochures carefully you can usually tell which caves have succumbed to commercialism and which still value the natural beauty of the underground world. Plan your visits accordingly.

Other Virginia "show caves" include Natural Bridge, Skyline, Grand and Luray Caverns, all accessible from Interstate 81.

Visiting a cave requires some minor physical exertion. Expect to walk at least a mile, climb up or down stairways or slopes, and be prepared to duck often to avoid low-hanging ceilings or ledges.

Caves are wet inside, and pathways are sometimes slippery, so good walking shoes with plenty of tread are essential. A sweater or light jacket also is necessary for comfort in the 46- to 56-degree temperatures you'll find in caves, depending on their location and the season.