Shenandoah Caverns
— the colour the dark keeps.
Not only on a wall.
Shenandoah Caverns, on ceramic.
Each tile is finished by hand in our Knoxville studio. Artwork is slowly infused into the ceramic surface under high heat and pressure, and rests beneath a thin glossy finish. The colour lives in the surface, not on top of it.
Pick any four 4-inch tiles — National Parks you've been to, a Smokies set, the four seasons of one place. $ for a set of , cork-backed, ready to live on the table.
Each tile ships in a kraft box, tied with cream ribbon, with a handwritten note from the studio if you'd like to add one.
Three or five different vistas, hung together — a chapter of places you've been, or want to go.
“A commercial cave on the western edge of the Massanutten range, opened to the public in 1922. The tour runs about a mile through chambers named for what they look like: Diamond Cascade, Rainbow Lake, Bacon Hall, the Grotto of the Gods. Limestone takes its time. The flowstones on the lower level have been growing since long before the last glaciation.
The place, in three passes.
Shenandoah Caverns sits in Shenandoah County near Quicksburg, Virginia, just off Interstate 81 between New Market and Mount Jackson. The caverns were discovered in 1884 during quarry blasting and opened to visitors in 1922. The tour route runs about one mile through seventeen named rooms, descending to roughly 230 feet below ground. Shenandoah is the only commercial cave in Virginia with elevator access from the surface, installed for the 1922 opening. The cave is formed in dolomitic limestone of the Beekmantown Group.
Most of the cave is bedded dolomitic limestone of the Beekmantown Group, laid down on a shallow sea about 480 million years ago. Groundwater along joints has dissolved out the rooms over the last few million years. The active formations, flowstones and stalactites and stalagmites, are calcite redeposited as that water drips through. The Diamond Cascade, the cave's signature flowstone, descends in iron-stained sheets near the lower turn. Growth is slow: roughly one cubic inch per century in most of the active rooms.
Tours run through the year, last about an hour, and follow paved, lighted walkways with elevator access at both ends. The cave temperature holds steady around 56°F. The same property includes the American Celebration on Parade exhibit, a collection of retired presidential-inaugural and Rose Parade floats, plus the Yellow Barn event space. Tickets are timed, and combination passes are sold at the gift shop. Strollers and most wheelchairs reach the named rooms, and the exit elevator returns visitors to the surface.
