page_title: Crystal Grottoes
section_title: Description
hierarchical_section_title: Crystal Grottoes / Description
caption_attribution_description: English: The main building at the entrance to Crystal Grottoes, Keedysville, Maryland, USA Français&#160;: Le bâtiment à l'entrée de Crystal Grottoes, Keedysville, Maryland, Etats-Unis
context_page_description: Crystal Grottoes is the only show cave in the U.S. state of Maryland. It is located on Maryland Route 34 between Boonsboro and Antietam National Battlefield.
context_section_description: Most of the rooms abound in speleothem formations, generally stalactites, flowstone, and columns. They are typically white or buff, with one area (called Fairyland) tinted a light red, by iron oxides.
  The first room is 8 feet (2.4 m) below the entrance house and is oblate in shape, being 30 feet (9.1 m) long, 10 feet (3.0 m) wide, and 15 feet (4.6 m) high. At each end it is pinched out by mud flows and narrowing of the passage. This room originally contained a considerable number of formations, but quarrying operations and clearing of passages have removed them except along the west wall where flowstone and stalactites are abundant.
  The passages are continuously lined or covered by formations. Delicate draperies, bacon, and columns predominate. The colors are generally pure white or buff with occasional deeper tints. The passages forming Fairyland are studded with stalactites and stalagmites of a delicate light red hue.
  The Blanket Room is the largest room in the caverns at 30 feet (9.1 m) long and 20 feet (6.1 m) wide. Large sheets of stalactites and draperies hang in clusters from the ceiling, which is here 20 feet (6.1 m) high.
  The passage leading to the lake is profuse with formations and in part is bridged by flat-lying travertine, a condition that is found in many of the passages not open to the public. The lake is a small pool fed by water dripping from the ceiling. In wet seasons the water accumulates at a rate necessitating periodic bailing.
  The passages not open to the public are similar to those already described except they are constricted at many points. Orange-brown clay that covers the floor and lower walls of these passages is often overlain by calcareous formations. The commercial tour route covers approximately one third of the known cave.
caption: The building at the entrance to Crystal Grottoes
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