Show me. The Bacon! - Exploring the Shenandoah Caverns

Over the weekend, my family and I took a trip down to the Shenandoah Caverns in Quicksburg, Virginia.  Our tour took us down hundreds of feet where we explored over a mile of beautiful rock formations.

These caverns were made famous by National Geographic magazine in 1964 when it published an article detailing the "Breakfast Bacon" that could be found in these caverns. What the article refers to are the cascading sheets of rock that, when illuminated, look a lot like bacon!

Check out a few of my shots:

Bacon Formations

I found these formations to be quite different from my experiences at the famous Luray Caverns. At Luray, the stalagmites and stalactites have grown much thicker than the thin sheets of rock I saw here.

Another highlight was the diamond cave which could be illuminated in multiple different shades of light. Our guide also explained how this cave has become a wedding destination due to its brilliance.

Diamond Cave

This is the "diamond" in natural light.

Here it is in pink! Sooo sparkly..

This is the rest of the diamond cave..

As we walked deeper into the cavern we got to experience the so called "Tall mans headache/Short mans revenge" tunnel which led us to the rainbow lake. As someone on the taller side I quickly understood the name, the ceiling was very low. We were playing a serious game of limbo! 

When we reached the end, I thought the lake was breath taking but I was disappointed that they could not show us how it looked in more natural lighting. 

Rainbow Lake

Heres how it looked from the other opening

On the upside I look great in rainbow lights 😉

Near the lake was the capital dome rock, supposedly it resembles the capital building but I didn't quite see the resemblance. Despite the name, it was still pretty cool!

Capital Dome

Beyond the main attractions our guide gave us a lot of cool information about the cave. You may have missed it in the previous photos but there is actually algae growing in the cave. The growth is not naturally occurring and is instead due to the long standing light fixtures they have throughout the cavern.

He also explained that the caverns maintain a 54 degree temperature all year round! Glad I came bundled up.

Overall I had a great time visiting and couldn't stop taking pictures of the surround formations. Check out a few of my favorites (SOOO hard to choose 😅)

This is my column close up. Had to be careful though, touching the caverns walls will stop the natural growth of the formations.

This is a bit of a reverse bacon shot. Instead of getting in front of the light, I took this one from behind and I find it cool how the shadow displays on the rock face. In this lighting I find that the rock looks more like some fancy curtains.

And to round out my top three, I chose this one because looking at it just makes me feel really small in comparison to this massive rock face.

Thanks for reading and I hope I peaked your curiosity to go check it out for yourself. 😏