I plan to take a meandering trip with my little girl to Shenandoah National Park and some of the surrounding attractions. Having lived in Florida so long, and being from Seattle I miss mountains. My little girl has never seen a cave, so this is a great opportunity to take care of both of these problems. We will get to see mountains, waterfalls, and wildlife on this trip. To get to the park we will be traveling from Philadelphia. I will have to take I-76 to I-81, and exit I-66 to get to the north entrance of the park. I have found a hotel not too far from the park, but close to Shenandoah Caverns which I plan on visiting after. The hotel is Budget Inn, and is located at 2192 Old Valley Pike, New Market, VA. This hotel is located off of I-81, and is only 50 dollars a night. In the park we will stop by the visitors center and museum to get advise and some educational information for my little girl. There is a junior ranger program at 4:30 that has interactive children activities that we will participate in. Before…show more content… Within the cavern itself you can see many different Diamond Cascade formations, Bacon formations, the Rainbow lake, and the Capitol dome. The caverns themselves are apart of the potomatic system, and owe there formation to the Potomac river. The river and the rain move into cracks in the rock and dissolve away the limestone and dolomite overtime, leaving behind a variety of cave systems that are supported by the less soluble rock. The remaining water in the caves form the structures found within. They generally consist of calcium carbonate dripping from the ceilings. These formations are known as speleotherms. The Diamond cascade's calcium carbonate has the addition of calcite crystal which makes the formation sparkle. The Bacon formations are a type of flowstone calcite that has stripes of different colors within which give it it's bacon like
