Endless Caverns
From Gettysburg, with the boys still in Blue Knob with Pap and Gran, Obie and I set out south into Virginia. Our Campground in called Endless Caverns in New Market, Virginia. It is close to Shenandoah National Park and Skyline Drive. We took advantage of one more day kid free and did some longer hikes. We explored Cedar Creek and Belle Grove National Historic Park and then entered Shenandoah National Park from the North. We hiked about 8 miles throughout the day and saw some beautiful vistas. We had a picnic dinner while we watched the sunset from our truck. It was an awesome day doing more than we could have done if the boys were here but we are ready for them to be back!
Isaiah here, I’m BACK!
The prime aspect of our campground was the caves you could tour there. We took a tour, our guide took us underground into the cave system, he said it was the biggest cave system in Virginia, people still don’t know where it ends hence the name “ Endless “. People have only explored 7 so far! The temperature difference was crazy too, outside was 80, and the temp in the caverns was 55! Every season it was 55 and every part of the cave was 55! They said that you could survive a nuke in the caverns and pretty much everything. Our old babysitter Kacie from Ohio came to visit us . She is now a nanny for a family in Washington D.C. she joined us on the cavern tour and lunch at the southern restaurant in the town of New Market, VA.it was cool to see her after all these years.
We took a hike to the sign next to our campground that said endless caverns, like the Hollywood sign but it said endless caverns and it was way less famous. The hike was only .4 miles but it was still challenging because it was uphill. It was cool because the sign was located in the campground. We also had a jump pad and a playground right next to our camper which we played at a lot!
We were told about the route 11 chip factory that we had to go to, you got to see how they were making chips, they started with 100 pounds of potatoes and brought them though the slicer which cut them into their distinct chip form. It cut 100 pounds in 8 seconds! Then they funneled into the kettle cooker where there were these big tubs of hot oil and they cooked them in 10 minutes after cooking they went into a conveyer that took the chips to the hand inspection station where they hand pick all the chips that are misformed or discolored and they fed those to the local cows down the street. Then they continued up the conveyer to the seasoning station on the second level, they had season every chip. Then they move to the bagging station on the first floor they fall into the bags and once they hit the right weight the machine it cut the bag into the right size. We got to eat a mini bag of every flavor they made for free, we tried them all and they were delicious and my favorite was the salt and vinegar. We got to eat the salt and pepper chips that they were making fresh that day!
Current leg: 127
Total miles: 1482