Sharing more about Chattanooga, TN

I am sharing with you this week pictures from Regional at Chattanooga, TN.  I thought I'd share more about the Chattanooga area.  My friends and I went early on Friday, so we'd have the time to explore Lookout Mountain, the large mountain that overlooks Chattanooga.  All of us in the South who traveled anywhere as children saw the barn roofs painted with "See Rock City" and "See Ruby Falls."  (I saw one on the way to Chattanooga.)  Well, we decided to actually see Rock City and Ruby Falls, atop Lookout Mountain.  Below are some pictures we took there.

First at Ruby Falls.  You take an elevator down over 200 feet into the mountain and then walk a trail underground for a LONG way back to see the falls.  Along the way are lots of neat rock formations which are very interesting.  But the falls is breathtaking when you get to it.  It is lit with colored lights and they only leave them on for a few minutes for you to take photographs.  I cannot remember how many feet it falls, but it is all underground and is a very tall waterfalls.

The man who discovered the falls (I should have recorded his name) crawled through rock 2' x 5' to locate the falls.  He was gone 17 hours from where he left the other men and came back to report this falls, deep under the mountain.  Who could stand so small a space for that long???  He took his wife Ruby down the next day to see the falls and named it for her, Ruby Falls.

Here are Diane Gardner and Mary Ann Cole, my fellow adventurers. And here I am at the falls. 

                                      

 I tried to show the very top of the falls in this shot.  Hard to get it all in one shot!.

 This is the view of Chattanooga from atop the Ruby Falls visitor center.

 I didn't take any photographs at the Inclined Railroad, but it was put into use in 1895 and is about a 79% grade down and back up the mountain.  Quite a ride.

Then we visited Rock City.  Here is a sign telling the "barn" story--advertisements were painted on over 800 barns around the South and hey, as far north as Michigan--no wonder we all remember seeing them as children!!

Now you can only buy bird houses with the "See Rock City" logo on them!

We had to clown around a bit.  Here is Diane trying to "keep the rocks from closing in on her!"

And Mary Ann tried to "keep the rocks from falling on us!"  Ha!!

They had a wonderfully long swinging bridge which Mary Ann could not resist swaying as we walked!

 Here are our shadows as we were on the bridge.

 You can see 7 states from atop Rock City and this rock shows them all and how far away they are.  Did you realize that more states border Tennessee than any other state?  Neat fact.

 This is Mushroom Rock.  Aptly named!

 I think I remember this one was named Balance Rock.

 A view of the top observation deck and the sky walkway to view the outside waterfalls.  See it in this picture?

 OK, probably a bore to you, but I totally enjoyed the side excursion on Friday before Regionals.  Come back tomorrow and I'll show you more display boards and samples!
Smiles, Laura