Hupp Cave

Hupp Cave. How Strata Shaped Strategy: The Hupp's Hill Civil War/Karst Interpretive Walking Trail. , Hupp Cave is one of two (known) wild Caves on Hupp's Hill. Unlike show caves such as Crystal Caverns which are open to the public, wild caves, of which there are thousands in the Shenandoah Valley alone, would often serve as snake pits, cat lairs, and/or bear dens. Larger caves would also provide temporary shelter for humans against the elements or predators., Please observe the safety barriers here and at Keyhole Cave (CWK 6)., Hupp's Hill, and much of the nearby upland terrain, lie within limestones and shales that lithified from sediments posited on the floor of a shallow sea that covered most of North America during the Ordovician Period approximately 460 million years ago. The rock layers exposed on Hupp's Hill are part of the Edinburg Formation. Collision of two major tectonic plates during the formation of the super-continent Pangaea 290 to 250 million years ago compressed the strata into mountains, which have been reduced to hills through millions of years of erosion., You have reached the bottom of a sinkhole with a throat (an opening in the subsurface) that opens into Hupp Cave (a wild cave). Hupp's Hill also contains another type of closed depression called a doline (a smooth bawl without a throat that may be filled with residual matter).