Listing Through Life

I arrived at Rock City at 8:30 a.m., just as it opened. I was the first, and for about half an hour, only visitor of the day.

As I was exiting through the gift shop, Joy, the young woman behind the counter asked about my chair. This was the result:

This place, on Lookout Mountain, is fantastic. It’s so corny that it transcends corny and becomes cool for its corniness. I went by myself one overcast, cool morning and was the first visitor for the day. For most of my time there, I was alone (unless you count the four (4!) guys walking around with leaf blowers clearing off the rocks and paths).

The first part of the trail winds through and over crevices in the mountain. (You’ll notice in these photos that I had some sort of annoy blotch on my camera lens that shows up as a white smear.)

My first thought, when I saw this scene in Gnome Valley, was “I’m not dead!”

Miniature golf was created by the guy who also created Rock City Gardens. In fact, he bought the land with the money he made selling his miniature golf idea.

Here’s one of the annoying leaf-blower guys.

The trail then runs along and about the cliff at the edge of Lookout Mountain.

Looking up at the suspension bridge.

The windows in the cliff on the left look out from the “Rainbow Room.” Each of the windows have a different color pane of glass.

Years ago, there were signs by each window that read, “This is what Chattanooga would look like if everything was red;” “This is what Chattanooga would look like if everything was green;” etc. The signs are gone, but the glass remains.

Up to this point, Rock City is scenic. After this, it gets very strange.

The tunnel goes on for perhaps a quarter mile. Alcoves off the tunnel contain scenes with gnomes or fairy tale characters lit with garish black light.

And I haven’t posted all of them. They’re so strange and creepy that I find myself mesmerized. And just when you think you might be close to escaping, you come to a large room with a huge display in the center filled with Mother Goose nursery rhyme scenes.

When we were here last, my daughter was four. We walked around Mother Goose Village, and then she wanted to do it again by herself. She soon disappeared into the darkness, invisible except for her white shirt that danced along eerily in the black light. She was out of sight for a couple seconds until we saw the white shirt dancing back toward us on the other side of the room.

I drove up Lookout Mountain (which was about eight minutes from my hotel) and toured two parts of the Chickamauga and Chattanooga National Military Park.

The Battle Above the Clouds refers to the battle that took place on the slopes of Lookout Mountain on November 24, 1863. It was a cloudy day, and the Union troops in Chattanooga had trouble following the action. Major General Joseph Hooker led a Union force up the mountain and chased off a smaller Confederate force. To make the attack, his army crossed a creek down in this valley and headed straight up the slope to the base of the cliffs, then continued along the slope to the point.

The rest of the army couldn’t see what was happening on the mountain because of the clouds, which gave the battle its name. After some intense fighting, the Confederates were driven back.

Much of the fighting took place around the Cravens House, which was destroyed by Union troops after the battle and then rebuilt right after the war. There are monuments to New York and Ohio troops in the yard.

The other section of the battlefield is Point Park, where very little, if any, fighting took place. But it does provide some great views.

The Cravens house is visible in the foreground of the next photos.

Here’s a close-up view from the point.

A zoom view of the Chattanooga Choo-Choo from the mountain.

General Hooker was very proud of his victory and commissioned “The Battle Above the Clouds” by James Walker, a painting that made him look very heroic indeed. Hooker can be seen on his white horse in the center of the painting. It’s  is on display in the visitor center. I asked Ranger Kim for a red chair photo in front of it. Hooker can be seen on a white horse in the center.