Hello Hiveians and welcome back!
Today we're going to jump into my latest adventure, a road trip down to Miami! I have a few series I still haven't finished yet, such as Japan, which is crazy since that was 2 years ago almost! I need to get on top of things!
Anyways, a friend of mine was driving back to Miami from NYC, so I decided I'd fly into NYC and drive back and make a bit of an adventure out of it.
So I flew out from Boston to NYC and got there on a Monday at around 12pm, after a bit of a flight delay. We wandered around NYC a little, grabbed some food and then began our journey South.
We'd stop for the night in Virginia, in an airbnb that was way too small. But that's besides the point. Next morning we awoke early to rainy weather, but it didn't matter much since we'd be indoors for the day, or more accurately, underground.
While looking into interesting things to do along the way, I came across the Luray Caverns! I believe they're actually the largest cave system in the United States, and they are home to the most stalagmite ornaments in the world!
So we headed there early in the morning, got our somewhat overpriced tickets, and began to head underground!
As we descended into the cave a bit, we were eventually greeted by a huge stalagmite formation marking the beginning of the cavern.
After that, another small walk forward and things opened up even more!
After that, we continued on into what's called the "fish market", which is called that due to the wavy, and still wet and slimey looking stalagmite formations that look like, well, wet fish.
After that, it was off towards the Dream Lake. But first, a small sample of what was to come.
And then a little bit further up, I saw the Dream Lake. I've never seen a more authentic optical illusion of the perfect reflection of the cave ceiling, in an inch or so of water, that seemed to appear 12 feet deep. It was amazing.
After that amazing experience, we next entered another open hall full of amazing stalagmite ornaments!
And if you're wondering how these amazing formations formed, well, it was thousands and millions of years of this:
Yup. Drips upon drips of water. Crazy.
Here's some more the amazing formations I saw!
And then after all of that, and so much more that I just don't have the time or the ability to share, we got to the final amazing feature of this cave: The Stalagmite Organ. It is the worlds largest instrument, and it works by vibrating different structures in the cave up to 3.5 acres away and resonate throughout the caves 64 acres! And here it is:
This was my first experience in a cave like this! And I'm so glad I came across it during my research. It's definitely an incredible place to experience and I can't even imagine how the person who first discovered this cave must have felt when he saw what he stumbled upon!
What did you think of this place? Have you ever been to any amazing caves?
I hope you enjoyed this installment and stay tuned for next installment of one of these series! :)
And in the meantime if you'd like to see more of my work you can visit www.SeanGold.com or on Instagram at @SeanGoldPhotos