Miller took the Register-Herald ’ s photographer Jenny Harnish to Piercy ’ s Mill , Greenbrier County . The cave is owned by an environmental conservancy for the purposes of preservation .
Balfour describes the cave to include a stream flowing out of the cave that sinks several miles to the north and flows through various cave systems . Occasionally you have a big flood with a lot of water coming through , which dissolves the sides of the walls , creating beautiful patterns .
The upper level of Piercy ’ s Mills is full of rimstone cans , which is another type of formation that is the result of moving water . Balfour notes , “ These formations have been working for a long time .”
“ You wade into [ Piercy ’ s Mill ], and it can be anywhere between waist-deep and chest-deep water . If you continue straight upstream it kind of ends in a breakdown pile . But we ’ re going to take a little right turn and you come into this room with all these rimstone pools ,” Miller says .
Rimstone pools are formed by minerals that form rims around the pools which often showcase beautiful clear blue water .
Salamanders and crawdads enjoy the caves , too . And , the caver ’ s mascot is a bat . “ They are very cute , not spreaders of disease , very cool to see , very tiny and they do great work ,” she says .
Greenbrier Grotto can be found on Facebook and offers monthly expeditions into an area cave . �
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