page_title: Shenandoah River
section_title: Geology
hierarchical_section_title: Shenandoah River / Geology
caption_attribution_description: English: Reflecting lake in the Luray caverns in the northern Shenendoah valley. Formations were likened by our guide to various Disney characters...
context_page_description: The Shenandoah River is a tributary of the Potomac River, 55.6 miles long with two forks approximately 100 miles long each, in the U.S. states of Virginia and West Virginia. The principal tributary of the Potomac, the river and its tributaries drain the central and lower Shenandoah Valley and the Page Valley in the Appalachians on the west side of the Blue Ridge Mountains, in northwestern Virginia and the Eastern Panhandle of West Virginia.
context_section_description: The Shenandoah valley is underlain by limestone. The fertile soil made it a favored place for early settlement.  It continues to be a major agricultural area of Virginia and West Virginia. Some karst topography is evident, and the limestone is honeycombed with caves.  Several have been developed as commercial tourist attractions, including Luray Caverns, Shenandoah Caverns, and Skyline Caverns.
  On the riverbank a few miles above Harper's Ferry is said to be a cave with an opening just large enough for a mounted rider to squeeze through. It widened in the interior to a spacious room where hundreds of Col. John Mosby's raiding troops are said to have hidden from pursuing Union cavalry.
caption: Dream Lake, inside Luray Caverns
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