{"id":28,"date":"2014-10-15T02:02:13","date_gmt":"2014-10-15T02:02:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/swirleyeyedsister.com\/site\/?p=28"},"modified":"2023-11-07T22:41:11","modified_gmt":"2023-11-07T22:41:11","slug":"day-3-shenandoah-cavern-and-park","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/swirly-eyedsister.com\/?p=28","title":{"rendered":"Day 3: Shenandoah Cavern and Park"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Cave<\/a> \"caverns<\/a> \"caverns1\"<\/a> \"leaves\"<\/a> \"rainbow\"<\/a> \"Shenandoah<\/a> \"Shenandoah<\/a> \"Shenandoah<\/a> \"valley<\/a><\/p>\n

John: If y’all want me to relax, leave me at home.<\/p>\n

Despite having said that this morning, John (and I) had a spectacular day viewing Shenandoah Cavern and Shenandoah Valley National Park. The weather threatened, then sputtered rain as we drove along the Virginia countryside. I spotted a deer poking its head above the bright green vegetation in a farmer’s field.<\/p>\n

We passed by farm houses and rolling hills, dotted with leaves of yellow-gold and orange-rust with an occasional brilliant red, black Angus cows and their calves, and horses running alongside miles of wooden fences.<\/p>\n

As we neared the cavern, sunlight broke through the clouds to create a rainbow that lasted just long enough for us to get out of the car and snap a photo. An auspicious beginning of our sightseeing tour.<\/p>\n

Unlike the more famous and much-promoted Luray Cavern, Shenandoah is a low-key operation. We had only five in our tour group, though our guide said she once had a group of 90 she had to lead through the cavern. We rode an elevator down fourteen stories to the bottom of the cave. It was discovered by two teen farmboys in 1884. They used it as their private playhouse for two years before revealing their secret hiding place. The cavern opened for public viewing in 1922.<\/p>\n

The stalagmites and stalactites have been growing there since violent earthquakes shook the area as the sea receded from the area.<\/p>\n

After our hourlong tour, we ate a picnic lunch overlooking the valley. The rain started up again as we headed for the national park. We stopped at a handful of the 75 scenic overlooks before the fog rolled in. Gorgeous views! We considered walking on one of the trails (only an easy hour’s walk), but the rain and wind were too fierce. No more scenic overlooks for us, just a ride down the mountain to Roanoke.<\/p>\n

But it didn’t matter; the day had been lovely despite the rain: a rainbow, spectacular cavern, beautiful hills and valleys, and another miracle I noted at the end of the day\u2014thanks to Dr. Fitz and my new knees, I hopped out of the car without a groan, with no stiffness, and no pain.<\/p>\n

Yippee!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

John: If y’all want me to relax, leave me at home. Despite having said that this morning, John (and I) had a spectacular day viewing Shenandoah Cavern and Shenandoah Valley National Park. The weather threatened, then sputtered rain as we Continue reading Day 3: Shenandoah Cavern and Park<\/span>→<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-28","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-vista-trip"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/swirly-eyedsister.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/swirly-eyedsister.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/swirly-eyedsister.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/swirly-eyedsister.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/swirly-eyedsister.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=28"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/swirly-eyedsister.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":38,"href":"https:\/\/swirly-eyedsister.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28\/revisions\/38"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/swirly-eyedsister.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=28"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/swirly-eyedsister.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=28"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/swirly-eyedsister.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=28"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}