Shenandoah National Park

Yesterday, immediately after the Palm Sunday hoopla was over, we got into the car and drove to Front Royal, Virginia. Never heard of it? Neither had I before yesterday. It just happened to be near to where we wanted to start our day today. The drive went smoothly; L was a trooper and the traffic around New York wasn’t too bad.

We started our day on the north end of the Skyline Drive in Shenandoah National Park. As the name of the drive suggests, the road snakes along the top of the mountains that are in the park. The drive treated us to many wonderful views. L wasn’t as impressed with the views as he was by all the whitetail deer at the side of the road. After we saw our first group of deer, he kept on asking for them. Eventually, we had to tell him that, after deer finish their breakfast, they take a nap and don’t want to be seen.

By 11 o’clock, we found ourselves in Luray. We made our way to the Luray Caverns where we paid lots of money to walk around in a large cave. The stalagmites and stalactites in the cave were spectacular. Our favorite part of the cave was a room that had a large pond in it. The water surface acted like a mirror, which made the floor look exactly like the ceiling. The tourist literature for the caverns boasted that the cave had an organ in it. In the 50s, some guy went around the cave tapping the crystal formations with a rubber mallet. When he found enough crystal formations that vibrated at the right frequency, he rigged up a keyboard and some electrically controlled mallets so that he could play music in the cave. We were treated to a rendition of “A Mighty Fortress is our God.” As musical experiences go, it wasn’t all that impressive. A novice could have made the same sound on a marimba with a single mallet. Good thing we didn’t go there for the musical experience. Anyway, we really enjoyed looking at the crystal formations.

After seeing the Luray Caverns, we got back on the Skyline Drive and headed further south toward a trail we wanted to hike. The hike was about a 4.5 miles (round trip) and included a nice stop by a waterfall. L probably enjoyed the hike more than we did. When he wasn’t singing to himself, he was busy tugging at the hair and ears of whoever his saddle happened to be attached to at the time. And when he wasn’t busy “loving” his packhorses, he was busy…

…sleeping.