BOONSBORO-- --This is it," the hand-painted sign declares, with an arrow directing passing vehicles to turn off the two-lane country road just past a ripening cornfield. Making that turn transports visitors into Maryland's past, ancient and recent.
"This" is Crystal Grottoes, the state's only public cave, tucked into a rocky hill alongside South Mountain Creek just outside Boonsboro in Washington County.
Here, for no more than a sawbuck, the curious can briefly escape the summer's heat by venturing underground, where it's a naturally cool 54.6 degrees Fahrenheit. They can marvel at the cathedral-like chambers that nature has sculpted - drip by drip, over millions of years - from the limestone bedrock.
Here, also, they can experience a homespun tourist attraction from an earlier era, when sightseers hit the roads mainly to take in natural wonders rather than glitzy theme parks, casinos and outlet malls.
"This is not the biggest cave in the world," says Jerry Downs, who for the past 30-plus years has been the grottoes' manager, caretaker and chief tour guide. "But it's been said to have more [rock] formations per square foot than any other show cave in the world. And I have yet to have that disputed."
This is no Luray Caverns, the showiest of the commercial caves strung along the Blue Ridge Mountains in Virginia. The lighting here is plain, not colored, and there are no gimmicks like "stalagpipe" organs or gaslit promenades. The greeter is Faith, a friendly chocolate Labrador who wanders in and out of the two-story stone building that houses the cave's entrance.
Crystal Grottoes is laid-back by design, Downs says, to keep the experience focused on the geology and natural beauty. He doesn't dress himself up, either, guiding visitors one afternoon last week in a denim shirt, athletic shorts and scuffed white sneakers.
That doesn't mean he doesn't try for a bit of showmanship to entertain his patrons. On tours he leads, he delivers a rapid-fire patter of geologic jargon, history of the cave's development and fanciful descriptions of the varied rock formations that adorn the subterranean chambers.
"Here we have an Egyptian mummy, all wrapped up," Downs suggests as he directs a line of visitors along the cave's narrow, winding passageways. He gestures with his flashlight toward a thick, milky formation that vaguely resembles a miniature human form.
