Blue Ridge 2007

The drive to Virginia was lovely- it was a beautiful sunny day. I had been sick but was feeling better, and Savanna was excited for the trip. Upon arriving in Front Royal, we went directly to Skyline Caverns. Before touring the caverns we made our way through their Enchanted Mirror Maze. It was like being in a fairytale forest. Savanna loved it!

Being that it was a Monday, we got our own personalized tour of the caverns since no one else was there. We got to see Anthodites, which are rare crystal formations found in only a few places in the world. Vacuum-like conditions in the cave allowed for their unique structure, but since the vacuum was broken during exploration, they no longer grow.

We also learned about the Valentine beetle, which was a flea-sized, eyeless beetle native to the cave's water. Six beetles were discovered and captured by scientists early in the 20th century, but they all died when taken out of the cave because they couldn't handle the sunlight. They are now believed to be extinct.

We got onto Skyline Drive around 5 pm, stopping a couple places for the scenery. There was still snow on the ground in places, though the temperature was close to 60 on the mountain. We stopped at the Dickey Ridge Visitor Center (Mile 5) for a picnic dinner and then walked across the street to the Fox Hollow Trail, a 1.2 mile loop passing an old cemetery and homesites. Just as we were starting out we saw 2 deer, one which continued browsing as we continued on our way. At the old cemetery Savanna saw the name Fox on the gravestones and said " I thought this was a people cemetery, not a fox one" :)

At Panorama (Mile 31) we exited the park onto Rt. 211 and came down the mountain to Luray. We reached the Days Inn just at dark, checked into our "antique" room, and quickly fell asleep after a long day.