An Easter Sunday drive to Dolly Sods resulted in a spur of the moment trip to Smokehole Caverns. Brian's only wish for the Easter weekend trip was to visit Dolly Sods. It rained all day Saturday, so we didn't do any roaming around that day. Sunday was a clear cool and sunny. We decided to drive up to Dolly Sods to see the view. We drove almost there, only to find the road closed. We were disappointed, and decided to come off the mountain a different way, than we had come. The different route landed us on the road to Petersburg, and we just happened by Smokehole Caverns. We decided to stop in for a look.
It was very pleasant in the cave, which stays at a constant temperature of 56 degrees. We had a guided tour of the cave. We saw many beautiful stalactites and stalagmites. The white colorations indicate the mineral calcite, gray colors are supposed to contain magnesium, and the reddish hues are compounds containing iron.
This mound seems uneventful in the picture, but it is an artesian spring. You can barely see the water bubbling up in the center of the stone. Water was flowing down the sides. In the cave you could see just a bit of a large underground lake. The cave managers kept some golden trout in the lake with colored lights. They called it the rainbow falls.
One of the most interesting features in the cave, I could not get a clear picture of even though I tried numerous times was a vertical wall of rock layers. Layers of rock are laid down horizontally when they form. This wall of vertical layers was pushed up when the mountains were formed. It was really awesome to see rocks turned up like that inside the earth. The website for Smokehole Caverns is
www.smokehole.com. There are incredible features in the cave that no camera could ever capture, such as little brown bats and crystal coral. It is something which is difficult to describe in words and pictures. It should be experienced. If you get the opportunity visit the cave, you will enjoy the adventure.
An Easter Sunday drive to Dolly Sods resulted in a spur of the moment trip to Smokehole Caverns. Brian's only wish for the Easter weekend trip was to visit Dolly Sods. It rained all day Saturday, so we didn't do any roaming around that day. Sunday was a clear cool and sunny. We decided to drive up to Dolly Sods to see the view. We drove almost there, only to find the road closed. We were disappointed, and decided to come off the mountain a different way, than we had come. The different route landed us on the road to Petersburg, and we just happened by Smokehole Caverns. We decided to stop in for a look.
It was very pleasant in the cave, which stays at a constant temperature of 56 degrees. We had a guided tour of the cave. We saw many beautiful stalactites and stalagmites. The white colorations indicate the mineral calcite, gray colors are supposed to contain magnesium, and the reddish hues are compounds containing iron.
This mound seems uneventful in the picture, but it is an artesian spring. You can barely see the water bubbling up in the center of the stone. Water was flowing down the sides. In the cave you could see just a bit of a large underground lake. The cave managers kept some golden trout in the lake with colored lights. They called it the rainbow falls.
One of the most interesting features in the cave, I could not get a clear picture of even though I tried numerous times was a vertical wall of rock layers. Layers of rock are laid down horizontally when they form. This wall of vertical layers was pushed up when the mountains were formed. It was really awesome to see rocks turned up like that inside the earth. The website for Smokehole Caverns is www.smokehole.com. There are incredible features in the cave that no camera could ever capture, such as little brown bats and crystal coral. It is something which is difficult to describe in words and pictures. It should be experienced. If you get the opportunity visit the cave, you will enjoy the adventure.
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