Luray Caverns: Underground Wonder of the Blue Ridge

Luray Caverns, designated a National Natural Landmark in the early nineteen seventies, is one of the largest cavern systems in the eastern United States. The caves were discovered in eighteen seventy-eight by a local photographer and a group of townspeople who followed air seeping through the limestone and broke through to find chambers filled with stalactites, stalagmites, and pools of still water.

The geology here is limestone karst, formed over hundreds of millions of years as slightly acidic groundwater dissolved the rock and left behind the dramatic formations visitors see today. The caverns became a tourist attraction almost immediately after discovery, with a railway spur built to bring visitors from the Shenandoah Valley. Today Luray draws more than half a million visitors each year and remains one of Virginia's most visited natural sites, tucked into the Page Valley between the Blue Ridge and Massanutten ranges.