I just completed a wonderful birthday trip (with a longtime friend) to the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia, enjoying the ups and downs all the way from the rocky peaks in the National Park to the vast, deep Luray caverns.
In the Grand Caverns, the stratigraphy was particularly interesting because a hill had basically fallen on its side (due to plate tectonics long ago), and instead of the horizontal layers on the walls, there were vertical layers in the ceilings, dripping to create interesting shield formations. I didn't get great pictures of them, but just to the left, on the formation closest to these words, there's a lighter ear-shaped shield jutting towards us, as if listening to what I'm typing here. Thomas Jefferson himself actually visited some of the nearby caverns and drew the first known cave maps in the United States!
The caverns reminded me of a couple of my stories, except there weren't any bats yet. I'd have to wait until wintertime to see them in the caves. The above never-before-published microfiction was actually written about six years ago. I hope the escaped slave, a mulatto girl, made it to safety, but at least she found the cave entrance.
Seems I have a particular interest in caves, as my yet-to-be-released YA Fantasy also begins with Addi, a Vessian princess, hiding out with her wolf-dog in a cave, just near the entrance. It's actually Frix's cave, but you'll meet him later...
In the picture below, taken in the Luray Caverns, a pool mirrors the stalactites above it. I think it's beautiful, though of course much of the credit goes to how the lights were placed.
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