Chattanooga Sightseeing

 

As mentioned in my last post we moved to Chattanooga, Tennessee for a week.  Before I get into our sightseeing activities let me give you some information on our park.  We are staying at the Best Holiday Trav-L-Park just outside the city limits of Chattanooga.  I believe we are actually in Georgia.  I have seen these Trav-L-Parks in other cities we have traveled or passed through but never stopped at one. Now that we have we got a little history lesson.  These Trav-L-Parks were started in the early 1970’s by Holiday Inn and were called Holiday Inn Trav-L-Parks.  Towards the end of the 70’s Holiday Inn decided they did not want to be in the RV park business so many of the owner’s of the parks formed their own association called Best Holiday Trav-L-Park.  The owner of the park we are in is the original owner from the Holiday Inn days.

On to sightseeing.  On Wednesday we had a full day.  It started with a ride on the incline railway.  This is a mile long incline rail that takes you to the top of Lookout Mountain.  You can drive up the mountain, and we did, but riding the rail was fun.  At the top the incline is over 70 degrees, so it is the steepest incline railway.

Looking down the track

At the top looking down

At the top we took a short walk to Point Park.  This is a national park on the top of lookout mountain that played prominently in the Civil War.  Nice little park with spectacular vistas.

View from the point

  Cannon placements

After Point Park we went to Rock City.  We have always seen signs for this attraction and wondered what it was and were very impressed.  It is on Lookout Mountain and is a winding path through boulders, rocks and caves.  Along the way it has a waterfall, panoramic views, and some strange displays involving gnomes.

Walking between the rocks.  This is actually one of the wider paths.  At points you have to squeeze through.

Here is a tight spot.

You get a view of seven states.

beautiful waterfall. 

After Rock City we went to Ruby Falls.  This is an underground waterfall.  You travel down 260 feet from the cave entrance in an elevator and then walk a quarter mile through the cave to reach the waterfall.  At the waterfall you are 1120 feet underground (as measured from the top of Lookout Mountain).  We have been through a few caves and caverns over the years but this is the first with an indoor waterfall and it was spectacular.

That was our activities for Wednesday.

On Thursday we drove to downtown Chattanooga where we went to the Hunter Museum of American Art, had lunch in the Bluff View Art District and finished the day with a Duck Boat tour of the city and river.

The art museum is on a bluff overlooking the river and is made up of an old mansion surrounded by a new contemporary building.

The mansion

The new portion of the museum

View of the museum from the river (taken on the Duck boat).

The Chattanooga Aquarium as seen from the river.  This attraction, built in the 90’s, revitalized the city and now there is a vibrant downtown with restaurants, attractions, hotels and condos.  A very nice downtown area.