Retrospective: Pippin Goes Travelling to Luray Caverns

Luray Caverns has giant permanent billboards that line the interstate I spend the most time on when I drive to my family reunions.

So, not thinking much about the fact that I had Pippin with me, I stopped in to see them, one trip. This was when I still split the trip into two days, five hours of driving a day, so stopping for a tourist trap wasn't a problem with regards to time.

I got lucky, because unlike most caverns, Luray actually does allow pets. You have to carry them the whole time, however. Well, this wasn't a problem for me. I didn't plan to let Pippin out of his carry-sack anyway.

His carry-sack was a large pouch that strapped onto me with the pouch in front. Kind of like those human baby carriers I'm sure you've seen. I said to the lady who told me the pet rules that I guess you don't get many large dogs then, and she said I'd be surprised. They had a guy bring his large dog in a baby carriage, and since Luray is handicapped accessible, the baby carriage was able to go into the caverns too. (The stairs have a platform than can go up and down that you can put a wheelchair on ... or in this case, a baby carriage.) She said the dog was extremely well behaved and just lay in the carriage the whole time, looking around.

Deep caves

The caverns are very beautiful and serene. They are nice and cool, too, for the middle of summer (they are that same temperature in winter, but then it's not so nice because you're already cold). I really love the various formations and patterns that the rock and the water have made over many centuries.

One cool (ha ha, sorry, didn't mean the pun) feature of Luray Caverns is that although the tourist route is the same every time, the caves themselves do not, apparently, have any end. Nobody's found an end to them so far, anyway!

Rock alien

Pippin and me

What surprised me was how much Pippin liked the caverns. Usually when he was in the carry sack, you couldn't see him. He'd hide from the scary world and wouldn't stick his head out at all. But when we climbed the stairs down into the caverns, he perked up and stuck his head up, gazing around in pleasure.

Pippin in his carry sack

I don't know if it was the intense quiet of the caves, or the dark that despite the artificial lighting seems to permeate the place, or something else, but he really liked the caverns. He stayed "out" and watching his surroundings the whole time we were down in the caves. 

We went back to Luray several times in his lifetime, and he enjoyed them each time just as much. Who knew a cat would like caverns?