The Luray Caverns are undoubtedly one of the biggest natural attractions in Virginia. Most roundups list them as one of the top ten natural wonders in the state, and frankly, it’s not hard to see why. These stunning caverns in Luray, Virginia, are the largest in the eastern U.S. and reach ten stories high in some places! Not to mention, they have world-renowned rock formations and the world’s largest musical instrument.
It truly is a wonderland, filled with soaring columns, enchanting pools, creeping stalactites, and haunting music all its own.
Honestly, I have no idea how I’ve managed to live in this area for over a decade and not visit it until now. But the great thing about a place like Luray Caverns is that it never goes out of style, and time only makes it more incredible. So, if you’re also just getting around to a visit to Luray, Virginia, here’s what you need to know about the Luray Caverns!
The History of Luray Caverns
Discovery
Fun fact: The Luray Caverns were discovered by accident! A group of friends, including Andrew Campbell, William Campbell, and Benton Stebbins, happened to feel cool air coming from a sinkhole on a hot summer day in 1878 and decided to investigate. Four hours later, they’d cleared away enough rock to climb into the hole with a rope and candles (very Indiana Jones), and they discovered the most extensive cavern system on this side of the U.S.!
*Although it’s not entirely certain, there is reason to believe that Native Americans found the caves long before these men stumbled upon them. Traces of human bones, flint, and charcoal are embedded in the stalagmites, and a young girl’s skeleton was also discovered in a chasm. However, it’s possible that her body fell into the caverns from a sinkhole.
However, this initial group of explorers never profited from their discovery. The land was owned by Sam Buracker, who had a lot of outstanding debts. The court decided to collect on these debts in September 1878 and auctioned off his land. The Campbells and Stebbins hadn’t told anyone about their discovery yet, and they quietly bought the land around the caves. However, once the actual value of the land came out, they wound up in legal disputes for two years, which ended with the Supreme Court of Virginia nullifying their purchase. It was eventually resold to J. Kemp Bartlett, owner of the Luray Caverns Company.
Growing Popularity
Over the years, more and more people have come to explore these massive caves, turning them into a significant tourist site and an important natural monument. (They were named a National Natural Landmark in 1974.) In 1906, 18,000 people came to visit, and by 2018, that number increased exponentially to 500,000.
As time passed, more and more of the caves opened up for visitors, with better lighting and paths making them more accessible. Today, visitors can easily walk a 1.5-mile route through the caverns to see some of their most impressive formations and discover this second world hidden just below the surface!
Geological Marvels
Besides being massive, the Luray Caverns contain many notable “speleothems” (a.k.a. super-cool rock formations). These bizarre formations, formed from groundwater and mineral deposits, are often found around caves. Luray Caverns has many classics, like stalactites and stalagmites, but also some rarer ones, like flowstones, cascades, and epic columns.
These incredible formations make these caves so magical and fun to walk through!
A Walk Through the Luray Caverns
The tour of Luray Caverns is 1.5 miles long and takes about an hour. This time varies depending on how fast you walk, how long you linger at each point, and how crowded the caves are. It’s a very easy walk, with broad and well-lit pathways. You occasionally go up or down ramps, but there is never anything too intense. The tour runs in a figure-eight pattern, so you will start and exit at the same location.
While almost every aspect of the caves is worth gawking at for a minute or two, 19 marked stops along the journey are particularly notable. However, 3 of these are different angles of the same column, so I’ll only include 17 in this brief walk-through.
Discovery Room: Your tour will start at the very spot where the Campbells and Stebbins first entered the Luray Caverns! There are a few notable formations here, but the primary one is the Washington Column, the first one the men saw.
Amphitheatre: The Amphitheatre is an excellent example of how water and minerals can create colors in rock formations. This room has white, red-brown, and gray-black colors mixed in with the stalagmites and stalactites. There’s even a bit of green from algae.
Fish Market: Just past the Amphitheatre, you’ll see a row of curved, slimy-looking formations that look just like a fish strung up at an old market!
Dream Lake: Stop #4 is Dream Lake, one of the most popular spots in Luray Caverns. This otherworldly lake looks deep, but it’s only 20″ at its deepest! The still waters are a perfect mirror to reflect the stalactites from the ceiling, creating that dreamy underwater landscape.
Pluto’s Ghost: The column featured three times in the Luray Caverns tour is Pluto’s Ghost. Located in a 90-foot-deep abyss called Pluto’s Chasm, this white column was eerie enough to be named after the Roman god of the Underworld. It’s also notable because merging stalactites and stalagmites form the column, which takes many years.
Skeleton’s Gorge: Next up is the gorge where the young girl’s skeleton was found. Her bones are now in the Smithsonian Institute in D.C. This gorge has an impressive ceiling of stalactites that gives it a very harsh appearance.
Titania’s Veil: Located in the oldest section of Luray Caverns, Titania’s Veil is a stunning white flowstone formation that looks like a frozen waterfall. It’s even more impressive knowing that it takes 300 years to form a cubic inch of flowstone!
Giant Redwood & Overlook: Stop #9 features the largest and oldest formation in the Luray Caverns. It’s 40 feet high and 120 feet around!
Saracen’s Tent: This fascinating drapery formation was one of my favorites. Drapery looks like long, thin sheets. Sometimes, they’re so thin and translucent, and you can see light shining through them, which you can see in these pictures here.
Fallen Stalactite: This massive stalactite fell from the ceiling during a large earthquake but somehow managed to stay mostly intact! It’s absolutely huge and made me think of a giant log lying across a river. It’s also fascinating to see how the other stones reabsorb it back into another formation.
Giant’s Hall: At 164 feet below the surface, the Giant’s Hall is the deepest part of the caverns. With its incredible, soaring formations, it really does look like it was home to some subterranean giant race. The most notable formation here is the Double Column, which shows two different kinds of formations right next to each other: a fluted stalactite and a stalagmite.
Cathedral: Here you’ll find the world’s largest musical instrument: The Great Stalacpipe Organ! This fascinating creation is the work of Leland Sprinkle, who spent three years creating this natural organ. Using rubber mallets triggered by electronic signals, the instrument hits different-sized and shaped stalactites to create a variety of musical tones. The system is connected to an organ so that (authorized) people can play it manually. But it also goes off every few minutes on an automated cycle for visitors.
Wishing Well: At six feet deep, this wishing well is the deepest body of water in Luray Caverns. However, its mystical blue tint makes it look a bit bigger. Visitors throw approximately two to three feet worth of coins in this pool yearly, and it’s all donated to different health and environmental organizations.
Morrison’s Hall: This particular cavern provided air conditioning to the Limair Sanitorium in the early 1900s. The building was built directly over a shaft into this hall, and the cool air was pulled up into the building with a fan, making it the first air-conditioned house in the U.S.!
Fried Eggs: One of the smaller yet more unique formations in the caverns is the Fried Eggs rocks. They’re the stubby remnants of two broken stalagmites. But their resemblance to a couple of fried eggs is rather uncanny!
Veteran’s Plaque: Near the final stretch of the caverns, a commemorative plaque from 1928 pays tribute to the war veterans from Page County who died in service. (I unfortunately didn’t get a good photo of this one.)
Stebbins Avenue: The final path of the caverns, named after discoverer Benton Stebbins, is a fascinating stretch of formations and shallow lakes alongside a narrow path to the exit.
Beyond the Caverns
While the massive cavern system is undoubtedly the biggest draw, Luray Caverns has several other attractions on-site, including a Shenandoah Heritage Village, a Car & Caravan Museum, Toy Town Junction, a garden maze, and a ropes course.
The Shenandoah Heritage Village, Car & Caravan Museum, and Toy Town Junction are all included with your Luray Caverns ticket. You can easily spend another couple of hours wandering through them.
The Shenandoah Heritage Village, spread across 7 acres, includes a museum, a vineyard, and a collection of relocated historic buildings. You’ll learn a lot about the history of the Shenandoah area and the families who built and owned these historic homes from the individual buildings. The museum also has a fascinating collection of artifacts showing different aspects of life in the early Shenandoah Valley.
The Car & Caravan Museum is a maze of antique vehicles, ranging from children’s pony carts to a custom 1941 Lincoln. They have a huge collection, and it’s really neat to see the progression of transportation through the years and how colorful and unique many of these were.
The Toy Town Junction is connected to the on-site restaurant and is a large room filled with toys from all different eras. It was neat to see some of these antique toys, but honestly, it was a confusing room because all the sets were mashed up together. We didn’t spend too long in here, but I could see how kids would enjoy this more than we did as adults.
Closing Thoughts on the Luray Caverns
We had such a fun time exploring this incredible underground world in Luray, Virginia! While I’d heard that the Luray Caverns were fascinating, I didn’t really understand the scale and details they’d hold until we went to see them for ourselves.
I definitely think they’re worth visiting if you’re in the area. However, I feel that the tickets were slightly overpriced at $34 per person. The ticket includes those three additional attractions, which were fun and interesting. But we really only cared about the caverns and would have rather paid less just to take the cavern tour. You’ll get your money’s worth if you like vintage cars, toys, and pioneer history. But we felt like maybe they wanted to charge more for the caverns, so they just added these extra things that don’t really require any upkeep to make $34 sound more reasonable—just my personal opinion, but I wanted to be completely transparent here.
Side note: If you don’t feel like spending $34 per person but still want to see some caves, I recommend the Skyline Caverns in Front Royal. We visited these a couple of years ago and absolutely loved our tour! It’s $24 per person, takes about an hour to tour, and features many of the same formations as Luray Caverns but on a smaller scale. They also use colored lights to make everything seem even more magical. You can read all about it in my blog post, Discover the Stunning Underground World of Skyline Caverns.
But once again, I think the Luray Caverns are worth visiting at least once in your lifetime just to see how amazing they are and learn about these extraordinary formations just below the surface of our world!
Feel free to leave any questions or comments below, and I’ll get back to you ASAP! Please don’t forget to save this post for future reference and share it with someone you’d like to visit the Luray Caverns with!
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If you’re interested in more stuff to do in Virginia, don’t forget to check out my other posts from the area! Virginia is my home state, so there are tons of adventures, from the Shenandoah Valley to the beaches and historic towns!
Thanks for stopping by today, and I hope you’ll be back next week for another great adventure! Happy travels!
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