Lookout Mountain

Thursday, Sept 2

Today was our day to explore the area. We are mostly going to be visiting Lookout Mountain. There are a number of places to visit on the mountain. We purchased tickets here at the campground that will get us on three of them.

After breakfast we pulled out and headed to Rock City. As you travel toward Chattanooga you see signs all over the place saying "See Rock City". I should have known that if they hawk a tourist attraction for hundreds of miles (well, maybe not hundreds but a bunch) it won't be worth your time and money. Maybe during the middle of the summer it is better, but here at the end, I wasn't impressed. The gardens weren't in bloom, the White Deer in the deer enclosure weren't there and none of the performances were being performed. You could get to Lover's Leap, Observation Point and the Seven States Flag Court. You could look out and sort of see the seven states of Georgia, Tennessee, Kentucky, Virginia, North & South Carolina and Alabama. Maybe you can see them on a clear day but there was a lot of smog today. It was interesting to find the observation point and check out the waterfall.

The gardens were started in 1928 and opened to the public in 1932. Here are some of the things we saw -

A walkway -



The marker for the seven states viewpoint -



The flag court -



The waterfall and the observation point where we took the picture -




After wandering around Rock City (the signage isn't that great and it is easy to go in circles) we finally left and headed to our second attraction, Incline Railway. This is similar to Angel's Flight in LA but steeper and longer. The incline is one mile long and at it's steepest the incline is a 72.7% grade, making the steepest passenger railway in the world. It was built in 1895 and is currently powered by electricity. Here are a couple of pictures -




The entire trip takes about 10 minutes. While we were at the bottom we indulged in an ice cream cone. That made us have to wait one full trip before returning to the top as they don't allow food on the incline. Actually, it was pretty interesting trying to find this place. The maps they give you only show certain streets and the directional signs to the Incline are missing in certain places.

Our final stop was at Ruby Falls. I must say this attraction was the only one of the three that I would recommend visiting. It will well worth the price. Lookout Mountain Cave was open and used for many years but with the construction of a tunnel for the railroad in 1905 it was sealed up. In 1923 Mr Lambert and some friends decided to drill a shaft for an elevator to re-open Lookout Mountain to the public. They started drilling in 1928. While this work was going on, they broke through some stone and felt a rush of fresh air and discovered a void at the 260 foot level, 160 feet above the Lookout Mountain Cave. A very small opening was discovered and Mr Lambert and some workers crawled in to explore. They were gone 17 hours and when they returned they told everyone about a waterfall and beautiful formations they found. Ruby Falls was named after Mr Lambert's wife, Ruby.

Today you travel 260 feet down by elevator. You then follow a cave path past many unique geological formations. The first we came to was the Cactus and the Candle -



After all these years of people touching it the formation has become smooth and shiny. Of course, we now know that if the stone is touched by humans the oils on our hands will stop it from growing. Another formation we saw was the south end of a north bound donkey -



This cave also has a frozen Niagara formation -



After traveling about half a mile you will come to the area of Ruby Falls. When you first enter the canyon the lights are out and it is pitch black. Suddenly, the lights come on and there it is -



The falls are 145 feet long and are actually 1120 feet underground! It is the tallest and deepest underground waterfall open to the public. They don't really know where the water comes from but they know it drains into the Tennessee river. They have rotating colored lights that give the falls really cool effects.



The group has about 7 minutes before the lights go off again and you can walk behind the waterfall. Your guide then leads you back out of the cave and into the gift shop and other things at the top of the mountain. You pass one more formation that is fun to see - Steak and potatoes -



You can ride a zip line, climb to the top of the observation tower, pan for gem stones and shop, of course. We skipped all that and headed into Chattanooga.

Our last stop for today was to find the Chattanooga Choo-Choo. There really isn't a train called the Choo-Choo, it is a hotel. They do have a train on display that is similar to the type the song is based on. Chattanooga used to be a big train town but not any more. Here is the train -



We headed back to the campground tired and hungry. We stopped at a restaurant called Wally's for dinner (I was too tired to cook). It wasn't bad. I ate from the buffet and Bill ordered off the menu. I think I got the better meal. Now we are back home and resting. I should know better than to do so much in one day. It will probably take a couple of days for me to recover. Tomorrow we head into North Carolina. We will be spending the Labor Day weekend in Waynesville, in the Blue Ridge Mountains. Hope you have a good weekend. Here are all the pictures.