Day 32: Chattanooga, TN

On my way from Washington to New Orleans I decided to stop for a day in Chattanooga Tennessee.  Chattanooga is located on the southern border between Tennessee and Georgia where there is a large hill called ‘Lookout Mountain’.  It is called lookout mountain because, on a clear day, a person can see 7 different states from the top.  Lookout mountain is the southern most mountain of the Appalachian Mountain chain and was highly contested during the US Civil War because of its amazing vantage point.  The US Civil War campaign for this area was called ‘The Battle Above The Clouds’ because it was fought high up on the mountainside on in foggy/cloudy weather. 

Today Lookout Mountain is home to a few tourist attractions including the famous Rock City and Ruby Falls.  Rock City is famous for its advertising campaign which features close to 1000 barn roofs with the words ‘See Rock City’ painted on them scattered across 19 states.  Rock City is an impressively landscaped walking trail that uses large rocks and boulders to form interesting paths, bridges and caverns to be explored. it also included a section called ‘Fairyland’ which is a large cavern with scenes from fairy tales lit with backlights in the dark caverns. 

 

I enjoyed Rock City but it was very frustrating and costly for me to get there.  At the Greyhound terminal no one knew how to get there using public transit so I took a cab; Rock City, being a roadside attraction, had a costly entrance fee and I ended up walking about 3 miles to get there.  Had the Greyhound staff known about public transportation I could have saved myself a $30 cab fare!  I really wanted to see Rock City after reading the book American Gods by one of my favourite authors, Neil Gaiman.  In American Gods Lookout Mountain is where the climatic battle between many mythological gods takes place.  Neil Gaiman, an award winning author who can afford to travel the world seeing anything he chooses,  has a different, more expensive America than I do.

Anyway, enjoy the photos and I report back shortly after New Orleans!