Tennessee: Chattanooga (Day 4)

Day 126
No Boat Travel

So we woke up to more rain this morning which was disappointing as we stayed an extra day with hopes of seeing some sun.  I decided to just kick back and relax with my Kindle.  Clark on the other hand decided it was the perfect time to replace his Racor fuel filters on his engines.  Apparently neither of us felt like venturing out in the rain yet again.

At 1:00 the sun peaked out from between the clouds, and we quickly pulled ourselves together to head out for site seeing.  We had two destinations in mind - Point Park and Rock City; both are located on Lookout Mountain.  Hopeful that the cloud cover would have lifted enough to have a view from the mountain, we headed to Point Park as our first priority.  We were in luck!

View of Chattanooga from Point Park

Battle of Chattanooga Occurred Here

Entryway to Point Park
(taken from inside the grounds)

Tennessee River from Point Park

Museum at Point Park

I learned quite a bit about Chattanooga's part in the Civil War by walking around the park and reading the historical markers describing the battle grounds.  I did not realize what an important part in Sherman's march taking Chattanooga played for the Union.

After exploring Point Park, we walked to the site of the top of the Incline Railroad.  We decided not to pay the fee to ride the railroad as we had other plans that required we stay at the top of the mountain. We used the Uber app to call for a ride to Rock City.  While we waited for our ride, we climbed up to the observation deck to take a look around.

View of Incline Railroad from Top of Lookout Mountain

A couple of people recommended Rock City to me, but I had no idea what I would see when I got there.  I had the impression it was a botanical garden.  Since it is late October, I wondered what I would see and if the trip would be worth the time and money.  I am so glad that Clark talked me into going there even though it was very close to closing time.  We arrived at 4:45 and the park closes at 5:00, but closing time is when the last tourist can enter.  When we inquired they told us we had until 6:30 to view the grounds.

Rock City consists of a man-made path that winds through, over and under natural rock formations. Some displays are natural beauty, and others are clever man-made additions.

Needle's Eye Walkway went between these huge boulders
It is as tight or tighter than it looks to get through there!

Gnomes appeared in various places around the grounds
Some gnomes are 80 years old

Typical walkway through the park

Natural Beauty

Very fun swing bridge over a gorge
that bounced as we walked across.

Lover's Leap to left plus
High Falls 

Two trails weave through Rock City park - the red trail and the yellow - each with the option to listen to an audio tour via cell phone while walking the grounds.  Close to where they come together, an observation area provides a view of seven states.  Each state that can be seen from the lookout is represented by a flag and a description of when it became a state.

Looking out over SC, GA, AL

State Flags at Rock City Lookout point

After the gorgeous view of the seven states, we took the yellow trail to complete our tour of the area. Because of the size of his backpack, filled with our coats, Clark had more trouble with "Fat Man Squeeze" than I did.  As I wiggled my way between the almost touching rocks, I wondered how on earth anyone actually laid the stone walkway between them!

Fat Man Squeeze ...
and I thought the Needle's Eye was skinny!

Clark struggled to get through here
while wearing his backpack

 The rock formations came in all sorts of shapes including a balanced 1000 ton rock.

Balanced Rock Formation

As we walked the pathways and wiggled through tight quarters, we found various displays interspersed around the park.  We saw the gnomes like those mentioned earlier, a deer feeding area, and several displays designed to please the child in each of us.

Hiding in a corner we found a
Moonshine Still with Gnomes

An entire section is dedicated to Fairy Tales

Cinderella Display in Fairy Tale Land

Snow White

Name a fairy tale and they had a display for it including all the nursery rhymes I heard as a child in a display entitled "Mother Goose Village".  A sign posted here said that the display took six years to complete.

Mother Goose Village

Jack and Jill and Wee Willie Winkie

Humpty Dumpty

Mary Mary Quite Contrary

We completed the Rock City tour by 5:45 - just one hour after we started, so we exited the park well before our 6:30 deadline.  We called for an Uber ride back to town with Publix as our target to buy some groceries before heading back to the boat.  We figured we could walk back to the boat from there.  When we left Publix, we had a full backpack and two bags full of goodies to carry back to the boat - a distance of something close to two miles.

As we walked over the Market Street bridge, Clark captured some night shots of the city.

Chattanooga at Night
Blue Lights are the Aquarium

So, after a soggy start to the day, we managed to fit in a great deal of site seeing.  My Fitbit boasted over 17,000 steps and about 8 miles traveled this afternoon and evening.  We leave here tomorrow morning, so Clark says tomorrow my step count will be a lot lower!