Chattanooga

Katie and I spent the weekend in Chattanooga recently. The main purpose of the trip was to go whitewater rafting on the Ocoee river with a bunch of our friends, but we also decided to stay over in town for the night and explore Chattanooga the next day. We started with a walk along the riverfront and through the art district.

This horse is actually made of metal. It really looked like wood, even up close.

In the afternoon we explored Rock City, which is on top of Lookout Mountain which overlooks the city. It's a theme park of sorts. They are famous for their bird houses that say "See Rock City" on them (though we have no idea why. There's a lot about Rock City that's pretty kitschy



The first part is a walk through a wooded area which has lots of cool rock formations.



Lots of tight spaces! Not good if you are claustrophobic. I think this one was called "Fat Man's Squeeze", for obvious reasons.

This rope bridge across a canyon was not my idea of fun. I waited for the bridge to clear out of the annoying kids who were jumping up and down, and then made my way across quickly!


At the end of the rock walk you get rewarded with a fantastic view from Lover's Leap! The legend goes that a young native american from one tribe was thrown to his death from here, and the Cherokee princess that was in love with him leapt after him in defiance of her own tribe, which was feuding with the young man's tribe. It seems everywhere has it's own Lover's Leap with a similar legend (we have one right down the road from us here in Bluff Park).

Rock City claims you can see seven states from this point (Tennessee, Georgia, Alabama, Kentucky, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Virginia). As that would mean you would be seeing things 150 miles away, it's not clear whether that's true or not, but it's fun to think about.


This is where Rock City takes a serious turn towards the bizarre. On the way back to the park entrance, you go underground into Fairytale Caverns, where various glow-in-the-dark scenes of popular fairy tales have been reconstructed. Only, they are very kitschy, very 60's, and very scary! To wit....


And don't we all put our children in jail cells to sleep at night?



It was fun and bizarre and confusing all the same. Definitely worth the visit though!