Seven States in One Day

March 28, 2024 – Day 13

Chester Frost Park, Hixson TN

We watch a lot of travel videos on YouTube. Josh of ThroughMyLens.com is a lot of fun to watch. One day his video on Chattanooga, TN showed up. Chattanooga was already on our stop list for a couple days but we perked up and paid attention even though it was after 9:30 p.m.! He showed us some great, “Don’t miss this!” places in the Chattanooga area. We immediately changed our reservation at Chester Frost Park from 3 nights to 5 nights to be able to do a lot of what was in that video. We’re really glad we did.

Chattanooga Incline Railway

The first place we visited was the Chattanooga Incline Railway, which is “a funicular railway system over a hundred and twenty five years old.” The ride takes about 10 minutes to get to the top of Lookout Mountain.

We were the last to board for the ride up and had to sit apart, that’s ok, we’ve been sitting next to each other for almost 1,300 miles, we can deal with it.

I had a sullen youngster next to me who was upset that he couldn’t sit with Mom. It looks like Susan also had a sullen teen next to her. Maybe the two sullens should have sat together and had a sullen party! (susan here: there was a small girl that kept yelling something unintelligible. It wasn’t until we were halfway up that I realized she was screeching “squirrel!” every time she saw one. She was sullen youngster’s sibling.)

The view from the top was amazing.

It had a gift shop and a machine room underneath. There were two trains, each acting as a counterweight for the other, clamped to cables.

The steepest part of the grade is 72%!

There were a ton of historic photographs showing the various trains that have been used over the last 125 years. The one that really got us with the Centennial Exhibit that a had a photograph that taken not very long ago, in 1995. That was just yesterday, right? Right?

We wanted to sit in the front of the train going down the hill. We waited until the train was about to leave and got in line. The conductor said he had room for two more, but we told them we wanted to sit up front. He directed us to the other track. We were first in line!

Getting in first mean there was a great photo op!

It’s as steep as it looks! We both loved the glass roof. Wow, bet this gets hot in the summer. The front and rear windows open, but the others don’t. They claim a good breeze comes through but a hot Georgia summer’s day sun won’t provide any relief in that glass cooker.

This is the view you see if you hold your camera right up to the front window. If you’re a front car roller coaster enthusiast these seats are for you.

Here’s a short video of the two cars crossing midway. Feel free to turn down the sound, it is mostly just an annoying child yammering away.

Overall we had a great time at this attraction. We stopped by at a local BBQ place, Purple Daisy Picnic Cafe, just next to the large parking lot that we both happened to miss which is kind of funny because it had a HUGE sign. We wound up in a public lot and it wasn’t too expensive. The Incline Railway also charged for parking so one way or another we were getting charged for parking.

See Rock City

Rock City is just down the ridge top from the Incline Railroad. Since your car is at the bottom you’ll need it to drive back up to the top. It is super twisty. Full size tour busses make it up the hill, but neither of us wanted to try bringing Clifford to the top even though there was free RV parking.

Rock City is a tourist attraction on Lookout Mountain in Lookout Mountain, Georgia. Opened in May 1932, the attraction gained prominence after owners Garnet and Frieda Carter hired Clark Byers in 1935 to paint “See Rock City” barn advertisements throughout the Southeast and Midwest United States; Byers painted over 900 barn roofs and walls, in 19 states, by 1969.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rock_City_(attraction)

Rock City is a tourist attraction, that much is clear. But, like the Incline Train it was fairly priced and also quite a lot of fun. (susan here: Some of the places we liked the best have been very reasonably priced. The more expensive places seem like nothing more than a money grab, like Graceland.) Make sure you’ve got good walking shoes on as there are 39 stopping points on the 4,100 foot trail that meanders, up, down, around, over and through the very large rocks. Local artists have contributed art with sculpture and carvings. The gardens up top were nice except for the sappy music they were playing. We both thought hearing the birds and rushing water instead of music would be better.

IN THE LATE 1920S, FOUNDERS Garnet and Frieda Carter began to develop a large walk-through garden on their private estate. In 1930, Frieda marked the original path by winding a string through the giant rock formations. By gathering and preserving over 400 varieties of plant life indigenous to the region, Frieda received national acclaim from the Garden Club of America for conservation and horticultural achievement. On May 21, 1932, the Carters opened Rock City Gardens to the public. For more than 90 years, Rock City has been creating memories worth repeating. The mission of placing people and their shared experiences at the forefront of our 4th generation family-owned company, has given us the inspiration and ability to find new ways to enhance and share these gardens and support and care for the people that enjoy them.

Text from an informational plaque in the garden

This tight passageway was called the Needle’s Eye.

You can see the potential in the gardens, but we were pretty early in the season.

At least it wasn’t summer. The person who checked us in said we had come at the best time. They said the summer was like an armpit. “You get out of the shower and you’re sweating before you dry off.” They went on to say how Chattanooga is in a bowl, which means winds don’t pass through help relieve the heat.

This is the Swing-a-long Bridge. Paul was really anxious to try it, to see if he has cured his vertigo. Note, he hasn’t but everything was fine.

This is the well known “7 States Point” where you can supposedly see 7 states when standing just there.

Since its earliest days, Rock City has claimed that it is possible to see seven states from a particular spot (Lover’s Leap) in Rock City; a scientist at the University of Tennessee, when asked to prove the issue in 2007, pointed out that the claim refers to seeing mountains and other high points in many of these other states, adding that the claim was made long before the air pollution associated with the proliferation of automobiles and coal-fired power plants, and summed up with “I never thought it significant.”

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rock_City_(attraction)

The views here were, pretty much exactly the same as the Incline Train views, except for more states I guess. But honestly, the view was really nice.

Next up was Fat Man’s Squeeze. It was tight!

Susan helps a gnome. This isn’t that weird, there are hundreds of gnomes scattered about the property. It appears they all have something to do.

A view of the Swing Bridge from below. Notice the “For Wimps” stone bridge behind it.

The signs all said “Follow the Red Doors.” We guess that that is a thing, except, there were very few red doors and there was only one path. Even the directionally challenged would be able to follow the path. Interestingly there were several points where one could exit if they chose. Neither of us could figure out why because this was a cool place. We had spent a few minutes at the start looking for a map, it turns out you don’t need one.

Remember the Seven States Lookout, aka Lover’s Leap? Here’s the view from below. Notice the cantilevered platform. Paul wanted to test his vertigo again from there.

And here’s the view from the platform. See the cool waterfall? Paul quickly scampered off after testing his vertigo.

And now we’re below the Squeegee Bridge, or whatever it is called. (susan here: The Bridge of Terror?)

The Hall of the Mountain King. Susan says “Hi!” to the King who was holding up part of the mountain. They had the Edvard Grieg music playing in the hall. It actually worked well, unlike in the gardens.

The Hall of the Mountain King was probably Paul’s favorite part of the walk.

We’ll just ignore the fact that Susan found the water pump that makes the waterfall. (susan here: it was in plain sight!) Still, it was pretty cool. Onto the throne room, OMG, the Mountain King is a Queen, and she’s on the throne!

Susan used one of her amazing super powers to evict the Queen and gained the throne. We promise to rule fairly and gently. Unless you bother us.

Now onto the Fairyland Cavers and the Mother Goose Village. I guess this was some of the older portions of the walk. (Oh look, another red door, like where else are we supposed to go?)

Notice the gnome above Susan!

Initially, it was pretty stunningly beautiful.

But soon it got disturbingly creepy.

The gnomes hiding throughout this exhibit are the original gnomes that belonged to Frieda Carter. Most of these gnomes have lived here since the 1920s

from a plaque in the exhibit

We made it through Fairyland into Mother Goose. By now we were getting tired of the fluorescent black light lite figures. It gave both of us a mild headache. The moldy smell of the caves probably contributed as well.

Our day wasn’t done. The tourist part of the day was but we had other life maintenance stops to do. We headed off to an auto part’s store to replace the Jeep’s battery. It had refused to start when we got here. Paul’s Jeep friends were saying, “You’re still running the original 2015 battery?” So we replaced it. Then just up the street to the dollar store looking for a laundry basket. No collapsible baskets but we did buy a couple pillow cases for cheap that did the job. Sort of. Such is the “rockstar lifestyle” of your favorite bloggers. Fun and adventure is the name of the game when you roll with us!

Then we had a beautiful sunset to end the night.