Seneca Caverns Family Fun And Perfect Opportunity For Low Light Photography

Gemstone mining at Seneca Caverns, one feature that makes this a great place for the whole family. Be sure and prepare for some low light photography.

If you're looking for an opportunity to enhance your photo taking skills, a tour of these caves is the perfect place. Many digital cameras these days don't need a lot of learning to do this.

My sister and I decided to make a day of it and took the kids to this beautiful state park in West Virginia.

Hard Hats For Every Age
We All Prepared For Our Walk Through History

Over the years, hundreds of thousands of visitors of all ages have made the trip. Many a visitor reminisces about coming to Seneca Caverns as a child and then delights in bringing their own children for the journey. ..www.senecacaverns.com

This is one state park where you and your family are guaranteed to pick up some great history. The first thing you get to do is find a hard hat just for you. They do come in large and small.

Since Little Rose is only two and would be carried the whole tour, she wasn't required to wear a hard hat. But she insisted she have one too. And she cried, “My hat! I lost my hat!” as we came near the end of our journey.

So if you happen to see a yellow hat lying deep in an underground stream on your visit, you'll know where it came from.

Cave Tours Are Informational And Fun

Guided tours through Seneca Caverns are open to all ages. This portion of the park is great fun for the whole family.

Seneca is the name of the indian tribe that made these caverns their home. They had an oven for baking and cooking created fromt the natural molten rock.

Taking pictures is permitted throughout the tour. Your guide will even pause and let you take all you want. Our guide would stop and say, "I'll be right here when you are ready to continue."

But you are encouraged to take your photos quickly because there are set schedules for each tour.

Most of the caverns were under water for centuries. It was the natural flow of water that created the caverns we know today.

One wall of the caves features a water fall that is now solid. You can still see the flow as if frozen in time and space.

You'll also have the opporutnity if you listen to your guide, to learn the difference between stalactites and stalagmites. Stalactites are the ones that descend from the ceiling or downward. And Stalagmites form from below.

If you like low light photography, you will love this tour. The only time you are requested to not take pictures is for a few seconds of total darkness. You actually get to experience what it is like to be in total dark. You can't even see your hand in front of your face.

Did you know that too much time in total darkness can cause you to go blind? Don't worry though, the few seconds that you get to experience during this tour are safe for everyone.

Enjoy A Little Gemstone Mining After Your Tour

Outside the caverns you'll find a complete Gemstone mining system. Water is sifted for precious stones just like they did when our nation was young.

Kids of all ages can be seen sifting for stones

We didn't take the time to do any sifting of gemstones on this visit. But many mom's, dad's kids and even a grandpa and grandma or two were having a ball.

Sifting Screen

You can just picture miners of early days looking for their next fortune to appear.

Everyone can be a winner at Seneca Caverns. Bags of gemstones are available in their local gift shop. It's still fun to sift for your own. Even more fun when you know you will leave with your own bag of gems.

Tours are held about every hour. When we arrived one had just begun. So we took this opportunity to have lunch in the homestyle restaurant on site.

We all had a wonderful meal which made the tour that much more enjoyable. You don't want to be on a tour with Rose when she is hungry.

Both girls had a ball sifting through the samples of gems and seeing which one they had in their hand. The chart on the wall makes gem identification fun and easy. Five year old Abrie had a ball picking out her favorites.

The Road to Seneca Caverns is as Enjoyable as The Tour

Driving in West Virginia almost any time of year is awesome. As we made our way to this state park we had to stop for a few breathtaking photographs.

Be sure and check out my free photo gallery to see the rest of these photos. There is not enough room to post every single picture I take while visiting parks and forests. You'll find more photos about Seneca Caverns in the albums under State Parks.

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