The town that has Foamhenge also has a centuries-old attraction which seems to be the only reason the town is in existence yet today. Natural Bridge is a tiny dot on the map, yet has its own set of tourist attractions. THE Natural Bridge is actually lovely, as is the stream that you can hike along. The Natural Bridge Caverns are very interesting to visit as well. The entrance to Natural Bridge is another thing altogether. The overly large buildings that make up the "visitors center", wax museum and hotel are a throwback from the 50's or 60's perhaps, where the large and formal styles were meant to give the building instant importance and sophistication. Now they are kitschy, and we laughed that this attraction would actually bring in enough visitors to fill that hotel.
We went through the caverns first. There was only one other couple on our tour, so the kids got to ask lots of questions. The tour guide did well on his memorized speech, and we enjoyed seeing the stalagmites and stalachtites. Walking in a room made by the Appalachian fault line was interesting, as was the moment the lights were all turned off. It is amazing that people explored these before modern electric lights.
The next stop was the Natural Bridge itself. This geological feature has been visited by tourists since the time of George Washington- and probably before. G.W. himself carved his name in the rock wall. There has also been a road across the top for quite some time, and it is still there. We were surprised by its very size - it's much larger than I thought it would be. The path continues on, following the stream. The Monocan Indian tribe has set up a "village" to tour, and a few tribe members act as living history guides. The kids asked many questions about the food they were cooking. If desired, you can continue to follow the path for a while further, where you will find a cave, a "lost river" and eventually a waterfall. While hiking along Dot let her hand drift across the top of the stone wall edging the path - until she hit a snake! Thankfully, she didn't interrupt the snake's sunbathing, and we were happy to observe the garter snake for a moment or two.
Jamie needed help making it back, and the climb back up from the valley was long. We took a break when we reached the top. The visitor's center' store was cool, a good place to wander around. Dot bought a postcard to memorialize the trip, but they didn't get any more money from our wallets.
2 comments:
What were the rows of park benches for? It looks like church pews.
This will extend the idea of cheesiness to some extent - each evening they hold a light show on the bridge, entitled "drama of creation".
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