Ruby Falls, Rock City and Incline Railway, US

Day 2 – Saturday – Visit Ruby Falls & Incline Railway in Chattanooga, TN and Rock City in Lookout Mountain, GA

With a start of new day and new excitement to visit more attractions, we checked out of the hotel on Saturday morning. We had purchased combo admission ticket in advance that included all 3 attractions that we had planned for the day – Ruby Falls, Rock City and Incline Railway. It costed us around $48.50 per person.

It was around 1 hour 45 mins drive from the hotel to Ruby Falls which was our first attraction. We reached there around 12:15 PM EST. There was a long queue of visitors outside the Ruby Falls waiting for their turn to go inside and explore the cave. Our turn came around 1:45 PM EST. There are guides who take the visitors around the cave in batches and also share information about the history of Ruby Falls.

It took us almost an hour to reach the Ruby Falls moving slowly along the cave and taking a lot of photos. You can carry camera with you to take pictures of various structured rock formations inside the cave.

This cave is a limestone cave and is located deep in the heart of Lookout Mountain. As you move along the cave, you will see wide varieties of unique rock formations.

Based the look of those formations, they have been given a name. You can see formations that look like Cactus, Elephant foot, Dragon foot, potato, fish, columns, donkey, etc.,

One will also see some formations of drapery (named Ruby’s Drapery), Western Sunset, etc.,

Note that the tour is on a paved pathway with a few slopes and stairs. So ensure you wear good quality non-slippery shoes.

The dead end of the cave tour is the 145-foot tall Ruby Falls surrounded by colorful light display. It is the nation’s largest and deepest waterfall open for public and is located over 1,120 feet beneath the surface. Remember the lights are switched “ON” for around 5 mins for each batch and is switched “OFF” making it totally dark around the fall and indicating that it’s time for the current batch to leave and the new batch to arrive.

You can take plenty of pictures of Ruby Falls in different colorful display surrounding.

Back on our way to exit, we kept taking more photos of the rock formations which we missed during our tour to Ruby Falls. We exited the Ruby Falls cave around 4PM EST.

Our next drive was to Rock City which is roadside attraction or an amusement located in Lookout Mountains. This attraction was around 15-20 mins drive from Ruby Falls. It is a true marvel of nature featuring massive ancient rock formations, gardens with over 400 native plant species, and other scenic points.

We reached the place at 4:30 PM EST and started our journey along the enchanted trail through the Grand corridor.

There is also a place besides the trail that is designated as Gnomes Village. Gnomes are basically small humanoids that are said to be living in nature usually underground. Various sources describe them in various way. Some say they are good luck, others say they had magical powers and also they were guardians of treasures. They used to wear conical or pointed hats, can walk to move around, used to have beards, etc.

Moving along the stone path, you will come across the rock-solid stone bridge and Swing-a-Log Bridge. Both of them provide one with amazing views.

Swing-a-Long Bridge is a 180 feet long suspension bridge from where one can view and take photos of Chattanooga valley.

You will also see around various flowers and plants on your journey along the trail.

Lover’s Leap is one of the observation point from where one can see views of the valley and the beautiful high falls. It is also called as Eagle’s Nest.

You can also experience the rock city’s legendary view of seven states from lover’s leap point. The states namely Alabama, Georgia, Kentucky, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, and Virginia can be seen as marked.

As you move along, you can also see the Fairyland Caverns which showcases the sculpture of scenes from some of the fairytales along with the famous Gnomes.

Fairyland Cavern also features Mother Goose Village which is an impressive landscape of even more scenes from classic nursery rhymes. Do not miss to see at each other as the village is decorated with glow in the dark lights.

It took us a little more than couple of hours to complete the trail. If you are visiting with kids, you may want to keep some more buffer time. We left from Rock City around 6:40 PM EST and reached Incline Railway station at 6:55 PM EST. While we were waiting for the train to arrive, we reached the observation tower at top of the station to take photos of the scenic views.

Incline Railway is a fun train ride of around a mile on a single track system, except for the passing loop in the middle, allowing both counter-balanced trains to operate at one time. It has trolley-style cars.

One can enjoy the scenic views of the mountains and valleys from the observation windows on the train.

As you go down the track, it stops for few mins at the station letting the guests to shop and take photos. It again departs from the station down the valley and climbs through the natural beauty surrounding historic Lookout Mountain providing a breathtaking experience.