Incline Railway/Rock City - Chattanooga

*Pictures from our day at the Incline Railway & Rock City have been downloaded to the first slideshow to the left.

We got a late start this morning. We were going to spend the day checking out Lookout Mountain. We stopped by Ruby Falls and decided to pass on that attraction...we found out it's an underground cave with a fall, after Carlsbad Caverns, we decided Ruby Falls couldn't hold up to the Caverns. So we headed on down the road to the Incline Railway.

Now that was interesting! The Incline Railway is supposed to be the longest/steepest Railway in the Word. It's a little over one mile, at a 72 degree incline. Folks, that's steep! When I saw it, I started to back up and just watch Mark do it. I don't mind heights, but the track looked pretty much like a 90 degree drop at the top portion of Lookout Mountain. But I followed through and joined Mark on the ride up. At the top they have a lookout that spans 7 states. It was a little hazy, but you could easily see the Smoky Mountains, a good 150 miles from where we were. After the very steep ride to the bottom, we headed to Rock City.

Mark says he's heard of Rock City and seen it on bumper stickers since he was a small kid going to Arkansas and he always saw bumper stickers about Rock City. So needless to say, we couldn't come to Chattanooga without checking out Rock City. I didn't know what to expect, but it was actually a beautifully landscaped garden, encompassed in rock. It was a very humid day today, which made it feel much warmer than it actually was. I was ringing wet halfway through the Rock City maze. I remembered hearing about "Fat Man's Squeeze", and Julie, tell Billy it was indeed a tight squeeze! A few places we had to suck in for sure!

There were several lookout points at Rock City as well. You can see 7 states on a clear day. It had cleared somewhat and you could very clearly see the Smoky Mountains, North Carolina and Kentucky. There was a really cute area towards the end of the second maze...primary for children but it was just sooooooo cute. Lot's of depictions of gnomes in various scenarios, for various fairytales, like Snow White, Humpty-Dumpty, etc. Also, lot's of nursery rhimes were set up with colorful paint. Mark took lot's of pictures and I'll need to download them to Picasa, which takes several hours. So I won't get them posted tonight, but will as soon as I can.

Only thing on the agenda for tomorrow is to check out the Chattanooga Civil War National Park. It's supposed to be the largest and oldest in the U.S. There's a good chance of rain tomorrow, so we'll have to play it by ear. There is an 8-mile auto tour, so we should at least get to check that out tomorrow.

We'll be leaving Chattanooga Thursday morning and heading to Pigeon Forge, Tennessee for a few days to check out the Smoky Mountains. From there, we're planning on heading to Asheville, North Carolina to check out "The Biltmore", known as the "Largest Home in America". It's a 250 room mansion and takes more than a full day to check out the home and surrounding/supporting areas including the Winery, Stables, River, Gardens, Orchards, etc. I first heard of The Biltmore on an old show called "Americas Castles"...I loved that show. Anyway, we recently discovered we'll only be 150 or so miles from there, so why not make a short stop and check it out?

We're having a great time and are really excited about what we've seen so far on this trip, as well as the things we're hoping to check out in the coming weeks. Well, that's about a wrap for this entry...stay tuned~