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.