September 10, 2007 by steve.

For the second day of our Chattanooga visit we started off with some history. The CurbCrushers drove back into Georgia to the Chickamauga National Military Park. Point Park located on top of Lookout Mountain is considered part of this park, but the battlefield from the Battle of Chickamauga is located about 15 miles southeast of the Incline Railway.

This park is one of the first (or maybe it was the first) National Military Park. One of the interesting things about this park is that is was created while a number of the vetrans of the battle were still alive. The survivors of the various units returned to the park, and placed a variety of monuments and markers that show where their units were located during the battle. This makes for an interesting visit. Probably about a close as you can get to standing next to a Civil War veteran on a battlefield an have them tell you what happened.

Entering the park from the north, you come to the Visitor’s Center. There you can pick up a map of the park that has a self-guided auto tour. In addition there is a good presentation in the museum area of how the battle unfolded. With that overview, what you see driving around make a lot more sense.

The drive takes about an hour to an hour and a half if you only stop at the seven points on the tour map. You get a real feel for the scope of the battle that took place. When one thinks that this all took place communicating by messengers on foot and horse back, it is no wonder that all of the miscues that took place happened. This battle took place toward the end of September, and if the weather when the CurbCruhsers was there the middle of September was anything like what the Union and Confederates experienced in 1863, there was a lot of hot marching that took place.

Pictures can be found here.

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September 10, 2007 by steve.

Our final stop on the tour of Lookout Mountain sites was Rock City. This is the place of “See Rock City” fame, and once again classifies as one of the “Original American Theme Parks” in CurbCrushers book. Once again, the sign of a classic, Free Parking.

Rock City is an attraction that grew out of an individuals garden at one point. There are a number of natural rock formations that you walk through. It is very much of a self-guided tour. There is pretty much one way through the park, and you just follow the signs and walk through. Little CurbCrusher’s two favorite places were, Needles Eye and Fat Man’s Squeeze, where the rocks get very narrow and short. Everyone enjoyed the Swing-A-Long Bridge, and the waterfall on the side of the mountain. The final thing you walk through is a cavern that re-creates scenes from fairy tales and Mother Goose.

It took about an hour and a half to walk through the gardens. Everyone enjoyed the trip. This is a garden, so there are various botanical features throughout the park. However, the CurbCrushers visited in September, the fall, not spring time, so there were not a lot of blooms and color coming from the plants. We all imagined that this would be a really pretty place to visit in the springtime. Little CurbCrusher enjoyed her trip to Rock City so much that she wanted to visit again the next day.

Pictures can be found here.

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September 10, 2007 by steve.

Following the spelunking that led to Ruby Falls, the CurbCrushers did a mostly outdoor activity. We drove to the top of Lookout Mountain and headed to the Incline Railway. This railway runs up the east side of Lookout Mountain, and drops the passenger off about three blocks from Point Park. Point Park is a National Park, part of the Chickamauga & Chattanooga National Military Park, which is one of the first National Military parks ever created.

We visited Point Park first. This is a self guided walking tour that visits the positions the Confederate defenders of Lookout Mountain held, and some plaques that discuss how the battle unfolded down below. This is actually the end of the battle for the area around Chatanooga, which started in September of 1863 and lasted through the end of November when Lookout Mountain fell to the Union forces.

Following the tour of the park, we simply rode the Incline Railway to the bottom of the mountain, and then back up. There is really nothing at the bottom of the railway except the parking and the gift shop and snack shop. Of note is that if you drive to the top of the mountain, as the CurbCruhser family did, you pay a dollar an hour to park at city run meters. If you park at the bottom and ride the train up, it’s free.

The brochures here say this is the steepest inclined railway in the world. It does seem to have a fairly steep grade right at the top, and I think it is that last 100 yards that gives it that claim. CurbCrusher was not overwhelmed by the Incline Railway, I’ve been on others. As a matter of fact if Little CurbCrusher had not been with us, we probably would have skipped this attraction.

Pictures can be found here.

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September 10, 2007 by steve.

Well when in Chattanooga, you head to Lookout Mountain. So the CurbCrushers started their Chattanooga tour with a trip to Ruby Falls. Ruby Falls is an underground waterfall that was opened up for access to the public in the 1930s. CurbCrusher loves the “old school” tourist attractions and this one lives up to being a great place to visit. Start off with the free parking. Living in the tourist “hold-up” country of Orlando, Mr. CurbCrusher has come to expect that you not only pay outrageous admission prices, but you also pay through the nose to park. So when we pulled up to Ruby Falls and no one had their hand out for a parking fee, I knew it was going to be a good day.
There were no real lines at any of the three places we visited in Chattanooga, so once we bought our tickets, we waited about five minutes until the elevator was ready to head down 260 feet below Lookout Mountain. A short elevator ride, and you find yourself exiting into a cave. For the next hour and ten minutes you are guided through the cave. The guide stops and explains various rock formations that you encounter along the way. The trip culminates with the arrival at Ruby Falls.

The tour lets you spend about ten minutes in the falls room. The only negative is that the falls are never lit with good white light that lends itself to photography, they are constantly changing from blue, to red lights, with mood music in the background.

The trip back to the elevator is fairly quick. You walk along the same path that you took to the falls, but don’t stop to talk about anything. As you come upon groups making their way to the falls, the guides call out for the group making their way to the falls to move over for the “survivors.” The people on their way to the falls suck it up, and squeeze against the narrow cave corridor, and those going back suck it up and try and move by them without getting stuck. As CurbCrusher found, depending on your size (and CurbCrusher is not small) and the size of the person you are passing, you may get real friendly.

Another elevator ride and you’re back on the surface, at the level of the observation deck. A quick trip to the observation deck, gives you some great views of Chattanooga. Of course this is followed by the required trip through the exit gift shop.

CurbCrusher says the trip is worth the price. There are warnings that it is cold in the cave. While Mrs. CurbCrusher and Little CurbCrusher both wore long pants and jackets due to this warning. CurbCrusher himself wore a short sleeve shirt and some zip off cargo pants. Everyone was comfortable on the cave tour.

Pictures can be found here.

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