Luray Caverns vs. Skyline Caverns: It’s all about the anthodites
Welcome to my first episode of “Emily has opinions about things,” where I answer the age old question — which is better Luray Caverns or Skyline Caverns? — while visiting an ages old grandma.
This past week, we traveled to New Jersey to celebrate my grandmother’s 100th birthday — which in itself is news worthy — since only .02% of people accomplish this feat. While we could have easily taken a plane from North Carolina, somehow we glommed onto idea that driving to New Jersey made sense.
We also had our GPS set to avoid tolls, because organization skills and two years of not really sleeping (thanks, toddler). Which meant that somewhere around hour seven we were driving through what was obviously the most beautiful place in Virginia, and we didn’t have any idea where we were.
Rolling blue mountains, acres of farms, romantic mist — my wife wasn’t impressed — since she had just realized that we were using avoid tolls and we were now captives of our scenic route.
Until we saw a sign for Luray Caverns and realized we were in the Shenandoah valley (a.k.a the most beautiful part of Virginia). And so, despite swearing to never take said scenic route again, my wife was already planning our return trip from NJ to visit Luray Caverns on nearly the same scenic route she had just suffered through.
We’d visited Luray Caverns in approximately 2018, and perhaps the best recommendation of the site is that we were willing to take the long road home to see them despite the addition of a toddler / tiny terrorist to our numbers.
The largest cavern in the eastern United States, Luray Caverns are formed from dolomite and include a 1.5 mile walk through epic stalactite and stalagmite formations. While some of these flowstones resemble icicles, the caves are chock full of magnificent rock draperies (some of the largest known in the world), elephant ears, and even a formation resembling fried eggs.
But, in the end we didn’t actually go to Luray Caverns. We opted for a smaller, slightly off the beaten trail set of caverns about thirty minutes away: Skyline Caverns.
And this is why: anthodite crystals. Only found in seven places in the entire world, anthodite crystals, which line the ceilings of multiple subterranean rooms at the Skyline Caverns, look like anemones made of crystals and some even resemble crystal anemones in snow. Skyline houses the largest individual anthodite crystals and the largest anthodite patches in the world.
We were inside a human-sized geode.
No one knows exactly how or why these rare crystals form — and the few places where they are found such as the Ukraine, Brazil, New Mexico, and Virginia —are diverse in temperature and geology.
And in my humble opinion, anemone crystals beat out stalactites. Sorry, not sorry.
If you happen to find yourself (intentionally or unintentionally) in the Shenandoah valley, here are a few additional considerations to keep in mind:
First of all, if you don’t mind paying both $28/adult at Skyline and $32/adult at Luray, go to both caverns. Skyline cannot keep up with Luray’s stalactite and stalagmite action, and I’m glad I’ve managed to see both across multiple trips.
Luray is wheelchair and stroller accessible, Skyline has stairs both to enter the caves and at a few points underground.
Also, Luray fired all their tour guides at some point after our visit in 2018— which means you can enter the caves at any time but you miss out on any Q&A. At Skyline, tours leave every 20 minute so naturally we showed up just in time to wait the full 20.
Check out Luray and Skyline websites for hours and ticketing.