Lookout Mountain in Chattanooga: Ruby Falls and Rock City

March 20th:

Gooooood Morning. Today was supposed to be a warm day. So we packed our bags again, along with 1000 bags that had accumulated, and drove 'lightly dressed' to the Ruby Falls cave entrance just a few minutes away. They are one of the 2 attractions on Lookout Mountain that we had planned for the day before continuing to the Smoky Mountains.

Lookout Mountain is located south of Chattanooga in the border region of Georgia, Tennessee, and Alabama. It belongs to the Appalachians and is 729m high.

Enough geography class, let's get back to our schedule. So we drove to the Ruby Falls to see the underground waterfall. We took the elevator about 80m down. Our 2nd cave tour of this vacation began.

The guide, Neil, was a funny guy and led the group past rock formations that had funny shapes such as bacon, a potato chip, steak and potatoes, a fish, and a turtle. In between, the walls were illuminated with colored lights, which may seem cheesy to some, but we liked it very much. Maybe it was also because the tour was even more different from the Mammoth Cave. After half an hour, we were about to reach the 'room' where we would finally get the long-awaited view of the underground waterfall. Slowly, the group was led into the room. At first, it was dark there and only the rushing sound and the wind coming from the waterfall could be heard. We looked eagerly in the direction of the sound when finally the light show began. The water rushed down from a height of 44m and was accompanied by light effects and gentle musical sounds. We took some snapshots as the changing colors offered new motifs. After about 10 minutes, the light went out again and the group waddled back to the elevator.

After a short time, we reached daylight again and were ready for item No. 2: Rock City, which is a 10-minute drive away and located higher up on Lookout Mountain.

I don't really know how to describe this 'park' in Rock City. In Rock City, we walked through romantic paths between rocks, over bridges, under bridges, through a fairytale forest or cave, and past a waterfall. It offers a view of supposedly seven states: Tennessee, Alabama, Virginia, Kentucky, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Georgia. This is not proven, but it is still worth it. You have a view over the surrounding land, no matter which states can be seen, you stand on rock outcrops, and there are always new interesting scenes to take photos. We were very impressed with this park and would recommend it to anyone in the area. The combination ticket for Ruby Falls and Rock City costs $40 per person.

By the way, I have to correct the number of states we are visiting on our trip: by visiting Rock City, we also visited Georgia. So in the end, it will be 10 states.

Since we enjoyed Lookout Mountain so much, we didn't leave for the Great Smoky Mountains National Park until much later than planned, after 3:00 pm. We will spend 3 nights there... And what we experience and see there.. You'll read about it in a new report. :)