Mid-July in Virginia is HOT. We decided to go easy for this trip and take a break from our usual hiking. Our plan was to go tubing on the Shenandoah River and visit Skyline Caverns. We ended up having a later start than originally anticipated. While having lunch at Soul Mountain Cafe & Grill, I called the tubing outfitter to let them know that we were running behind. They said that the last trip of the day would leave at 2. As it was already 1:30, we knew we wouldn’t make it in time. We decided to flip-flop our plans, go to the caverns instead, and reschedule the tubing trip for the next morning.
Before going to the caverns, we went to Shenandoah River State Park. They had a lovely LOVEWorks installation at the entrance made with kayaks, tubes, oars, and signs. We picked out a spot with a nice view of the mountains and set up camp quickly before driving back to Skyline Caverns. On our way, we saw a herd of goats on a hill. I laughed every time we drove by them.
The caverns are open every day and have been since they opened in the 1930s, except for a brief closing during World War 2. We arrived just in time for the next tour, so we only waited a few minutes before we were able to descend into the caverns. With the outside temperature sitting right at 100 degrees, it was a welcome respite to walk down into the 55-degree caverns. Our tour guide, Walker, did a nice job informing us about the caverns. He pointed out a large hanging rock with three holes. The holes, drilled into the rock in the 1940s, serve as an alert if the rock was about to fall. Seventy years later there is still no sign of that happening.
The path through the caverns winds up and down and travels through multiple “rooms”. There is an underground “lake” that actually has some resident fish living in it. One of the members of our tour group claimed to see the fish, but by the time I was able to look they were gone. One of the more interesting structures is a rock named Henry that resembles a man. With one light turned on it looks like a seated man, facing away. Switch to another light and the same rock looks like a man standing up facing us. At one point on the tour, I heard the sound of rushing water. Curious, I looked to see where the sound was coming from. I peeked into a crack in the rocks and could see a rushing stream below us.
My favorite part of the caverns were the Anthodite crystals clinging to the ceiling. They are only found in three places, the other two being in Tennessee and Paris. The crystals are beautiful. I really enjoyed the part of the tour where they turned different colored lights on so the crystals took on the various colors. At one point, Walker attempted to show us just how dark the caverns are by turning out the lights. He asked that all phones be put away to get the full effect. Apparently, one of the men in the group was afraid of the dark. He turned on the flashlight on his phone and kept it on the entire time the lights were out. I was also a little frustrated by how many people in the group were touching the rocks despite the warning against touching anything.
After our cavern tour, we went through the Mirror Maze. While it was fun to walk through the mirrors, I don’t think it was worth the price of admission. The attraction would probably be very entertaining for children. As we left the caverns, it started to rain. We were very happy that we had set up camp earlier.
While planning this trip, I had wanted to go to The Blue Door Kitchen for dinner. With our plans to float down the river for the afternoon, it would have been too hectic to get cleaned up and get there before they closed. As they are not open on Monday it seemed that we would have to go on another trip. With the change in our plans and the rain that had started, we decided to go out instead of cooking in the rain. It was a good choice. Dinner was very good and a nasty thunderstorm raged as we ate dinner. By the time we got back to our tent, the storm had passed. The severe wind had caused a couple of the tent poles to collapse creating a dip in the top allowing some water to leak in. Luckily, we had positioned our cot in a way that supported the other four poles so the tent was still up. Before we went to sleep, we made a trip to the bathhouse, where we saw a very interesting giant insect as well as a very cute, big, fat toad. As it turned out, the storm was a blessing, drastically lowering the temperature, making it very comfortable for sleeping.
In the morning we awoke to a beautiful day. We hadn’t unpacked most of our gear so it was a quick breakdown of camp. As we packed up we spotted a large woodpecker. I would have loved to capture a picture of him, but he was too fast for me. The little bunny across the road, however, was kind enough to pose for a few pictures.
After breakfast at Queen Street Diner, we went to Front Royal Outdoors for our tubing adventure. They loaded us on a small bus with several other people and a bunch of tubes and drove a few miles down the road to our starting point. With all the rain, the river was full, overflowing near our drop off point. After listening to the instructions, setting up our cooler tube, and tying our tubes together we waded out to the river and started our lazy trip. It was apparently mating season for darning needles. They were everywhere. A bunch of them hung out on our tubes as we floated down the river. At one point we drifted by a tree, submerged in the water with only one branch above the waterline. The blue bugs, stacked on top of each other, covered almost every inch of the exposed branch. It was an amazing sight. Unfortunately, I couldn’t get my phone out of the dry bag to take a picture before we drifted away.
It was a beautiful, relaxing trip down the river. There was some excitement as we drifted through several small rapids. We had to make sure our bottoms weren’t too far in the water as there were some spots with rocks. We noticed that there were some very dark clouds in the distance. We could also hear the low rumble of thunder coming from the swiftly approaching storm clouds. Just as we were discussing our plan for what to do if the storm hit, we saw our exit point. As we approached the shore, we could see a multitude of butterflies on the path back to the outfitter. I took some pictures from a distance, thinking that I would miss the shot if I attempted to get up close. Evidently, it was mating season for the butterflies as well. They paid me no heed and I was able to get right up to them with the camera. They didn’t actually move until we walked through them. It was as if we were in a scene from Snow White.
On our way home we stopped at Moo Thru, an ice cream shop in Remington. They make their ice cream with fresh milk from their dairy farm and it is delicious. I had cookies and cream topped with hot fudge. Chris actually ordered a coffee and dark chocolate milkshake with caramel syrup (very surprising as he does not eat sweets that often). He added a little Jameson to his shake making it perfect.
Our last stop was for dinner in Fredericksburg at The Alpine Chef, an old train station turned restaurant.
Cost of trip – camping $47.12, 1 1/2 tanks of gas about $50, entrance fee for caverns and mirror maze $52, tubing $52.85.
View Gallery
Leave A Comment