The View From Sunset Rock - Lookout Mtn., TN

Sunset Rock is a stone formation on the west side of Lookout Mountain (Hence, the side where the sun sets) near Chattanooga, TN. The marker in the picture discusses the Civil War significance, and how generals here could overlook fighting in the valley below. The strait rock face also makes this a popular spot for rock climbing and rappelling.

To get here, there a tiny parking area atop lookout mountain, and then a short (.2 mi.) but steep descent to the bluff. Just as many places in nature, there's nothing to keep you from going over the cliff, so caution should be used.

Rock City's Fairyland Caverns: Goldilocks

After spending some time trying to see seven states and various unusual rock formations, visitors to Rock City finish their visit along the Enchanted Trail by enjoying the sights of Fairyland Cavern.

When Fairyland Caverns first opened, most of the scenes consisted of their gnome collection and related decor fitting a fairy tale theme, all moved into a new section of the park that needed a purpose. Then in the late 40s, Rock City hired Atlanta artist Jessie Sanders to create the glow-in-the-dark scenes from popular fairy tales and these are the scenes that still exist today.

The first thing Mrs. Sanders crafted was a deer that stands next to Snow White. From there, she created individual displays for different tales. Other than the first two scenes (which depict a mother reading bedtime stories to the children and then the children asleep with "Dream Faries" flittering about) she was given free reign to create the scenes as inspiration struck. As the figures were cast from her Atlanta studio, they would be shipped to Rock City and installed after another artist, Marcus Lilly, would paint the backdrops. Jessie's husband Charles also helped create many of the props that are seen today.

After Jessie Sanders spent about a decade creating all of the vistas along the main hallway, she envisioned her most elaborate display in 1958. Mother Goose's Village was to be a large room with a miniature mountain, adorned by a castle, and many fairy tale characters seemlessly placed together to save the attraction's best for last. After six years of construction, the fantastic finale was opened to the public in May, 1964 delighting young and old since.

On my website, I have created a gallery entitled "A Tour of Rock City" where I not only have tried to photograph each individual display in Fairyland Caverns and much of Mother Goose's Village, but all the other wondrous scenes at the beloved tourist attraction. seemidtn.com/gallery/index.php?album=chattanooga%2Frock-city

We've Seen ROCK CITY

As someone who loves the Rock City barns dotted across the highway landscape, I was thrilled when I found out they added another Rock City barn, and this one is actually inside Rock City. It may not be your typical See Rock City message, since this one says you've already Seen it, but I'll count it among my list.

This is now one of over 80 different Rock City Barns I have photographed and uploaded to Flickr in my Rock City Barns set. People often ask me how I've found so many of them. I have drawn from many resources such as books and web sites and sometimes luck, but there's not really one "go to" place to find them all. Well, now on my website, I have tried to create a one stop source for the locations of all of the barns I've been to. On my Map of Rock City Barns page, I have plotted each barn on a Google Map.

Desoto Falls

A fork of the Little River plunges 104 feet into the pool below at one of Lookout Mountain's most accesible waterfalls. Desoto Falls is named after Spanish explorer Hernando de Soto. De Soto's exploration travelled through the area, likely south of here, but according to legend, some artifacts were found near the falls. According to more folklore, it is suggested that caves in the steep bluff below the falls were part of a fort built by Welsh explorers in 1170, and while most archaeologists and historians find no evidence of this, it's tough to prove something didn't happen that long ago. Today, the waterfall is part of Desoto State Park, which contains several waterfalls. Upper Desoto Falls is just a few feet from here, and an old 1920's hydroelectric dam is just upstream from that. A short paved path leads to the overlook where you can get this view of the falls. Unless you know someone who lives across the canyon, this is the best view most people can get of these falls.

Endangered: Lookout Mountain Hardy House

www.timesfreepress.com/news/community/story/2018/jan/17/l...
From the article:
The house was built in 1928 by Edith Soper Hardy after her husband passed and left her $25,000 to turn her home into the one she'd always dreamed of. So she tore down the 1800's cottage on the property and built a small storybook style home.

Local historian David Moon, founder of PicNooga, a historical photography preservation organization, argues the house has historical value due to Edith's humanitarian work and her husband Richard's time as mayor of Chattanooga from 1923 to 1927. Edith founded the Humane Educational Society of Chattanooga in 1910, and was named director of The American Humane Association.

While the house has historic value, it has also been vacant and neglected for two decades. The home is now owned by the Chickamauga and Chattanooga National Military Park, located next door to the prominent Cravens House. The focus of the military park is the Civil War, so they don't have the resources to maintain a delapidated house built 60 years after the war.

The Park now has plans to demolish the house. The Cravens house is in desperate need of better parking, so this would likely become a parking lot. Plus the park has plans to add landscaping consistent with the time period of the Civil War. Now, people who wish to save this house have one thing in their favor: the park doesn't have the money to demolish the house.

www.facebook.com/savinglittleholme/

Lookout Mountain 3D art

In downtown Chattanooga, TN, located inside the northern terminal for the free electric shuttle, known as CARTA, is a series of 7 3D art / paintings focusing on local attractions. This image represents many of the attractions on lookout mountain, such as Rock City, Ruby Falls, and the incline railway, but also features some of the sights in the St. Elmo community at the bottom. The spikes were added to prevent birds from perching there.
Here are links to all seven images, if you want to see the others.
Lookout Mountain
Rock City
Ruby Falls
Incline Railway
Chattanooga Choo-Choo
Bluff View Arts District
The Electric Shuttle

See Incline Here / Coca-Cola sign

Along the Lookout Mountain Scenic Highway (TN148) is a spot where the street crosses over Chattanooga's historic Incline Railroad. Along that bridge is a pedestrian scenic overlook. The parking spaces for this overlook are provided by Mountain Memories, a gift shop.

Site of Big Rock Court - Chattanooga

For years, motorists around Chattanooga have seen a Big Rock with the words Big Rock painted on it. This is the story.

During the golden age of automobile travel, Joe Light opened a motel along Cummings Highway. This highway is located at the base of Lookout Mountain near the Tennessee River. Until I-24 paralleled the old highway, it was the only way that connected the city to the west, which meant lots of travelers passed through here. The most notable geologic landmark at this site was the Big Rock. Thus, the motel was called Big Rock Court and "Big Rock Court" was painted on the rock. Even though it has been several decades, the makeshift sign is still legible.

Big Rock Court wasn't the best motel around. It gained the reputation by the locals as a den of gambling. After a shooting, a police raid finally led to the Court's demise.

This spot was still a prime location for tourists, so in 1977 the Super Water Slide opened for business. Advertised as the largest water slide in the world, the fiberglass slide zig-zagged down the hillside. The popularity faded until the summer hot-spot went out of business in 1989 and the slide relocated to Tullahoma where I find no record of it. With no use, this property became covered in kudzu.

Local conservationist John C. Wilson let the group now known as the Lookout Mountain Land Trust to purchase the land and turn it into a park. Trash was removed, overgrowth was cut down and the park named after Wilson has opened. You can read Wilson's story on preserving the park in this article. Today, you can hike a trail, have a picnic, climb the old stairs to where Joe Light's house was, or get a better view of the Big Rock Court sign that beckons motorists to this day.

Rock City's Fairyland Caverns: Cindarella

After spending some time trying to see seven states and various unusual rock formations, visitors to Rock City finish their visit along the Enchanted Trail by enjoying the sights of Fairyland Cavern.

When Fairyland Caverns first opened, most of the scenes consisted of their gnome collection and related decor fitting a fairy tale theme, all moved into a new section of the park that needed a purpose. Then in the late 40s, Rock City hired Atlanta artist Jessie Sanders to create the glow-in-the-dark scenes from popular fairy tales and these are the scenes that still exist today.

The first thing Mrs. Sanders crafted was a deer that stands next to Snow White. From there, she created individual displays for different tales. Other than the first two scenes (which depict a mother reading bedtime stories to the children and then the children asleep with "Dream Fairies" flittering about) she was given free reign to create the scenes as inspiration struck. As the figures were cast from her Atlanta studio, they would be shipped to Rock City and installed after another artist, Marcus Lilly, would paint the backdrops. Jessie's husband Charles also helped create many of the props that are seen today.

After Jessie Sanders spent about a decade creating all of the vistas along the main hallway, she envisioned her most elaborate display in 1958. Mother Goose's Village was to be a large room with a miniature mountain, adorned by a castle, and many fairy tale characters seamlessly placed together to save the attraction's best for last. After six years of construction, the fantastic finale was opened to the public in May, 1964 delighting young and old since.

On my website, I have created a gallery entitled "A Tour of Rock City" where I not only have tried to photograph each individual display in Fairyland Caverns and much of Mother Goose's Village, but all the other wondrous scenes at the beloved tourist attraction.
seemidtn.com/gallery/index.php?album=chattanooga%2Frock-city

Old Man in the Mountain

See it? The front of the rock looks like a face!

The name of this rock formation dates back to a time when people were easily entertained. It's located near Chattanooga atop Lookout Mountain and the recently revitalized Stone Bridge Park. When I first visited this spot eight years ago, the entire park was so overgrown with vegetation, that the Old Man rock formation was the only thing worth seeing here. Since all of the overgrowth has been cleared out, the entire area looks nicer.

Little River Falls (from the upstream observation deck)

Little River Falls is the highlight of the Little River Canyon National Preserve atop Lookout Mountain in northeast Alabama. The Little River flows almost its entire length atop Lookout Mountain. Here, the water drops 45 feet.

The most common way to view the waterfall is at the main entrance off of highway AL35 southwest of Ft. Payne. The highway bridge crosses the river not too far behind the waterfall. From the parking lot, it's less than a five minute stroll along a boradwal to get to the most popular view. On my previous visit in 2006, people would go beyond the end of the boardwalk and walk all around the top of the falls, but signs say this is now prohibited.

There's a second view of the falls from an overlook a little over 1000 feet downstream. This view is at an observation deck accessible from the Little River Canyon Rim Parkway (AL176).

Indian Falls - DeSoto State Park

Inside DeSoto State Park atop Lookout Mountain in Alabama are several smaller waterfalls. The easiest one to get to is Indian Falls which is about 1000 feet from the parking lot of the Talmadge Butler Boardwalk Trail (but across the street). The trail and a small footbridge crosses over the top of the falls.

Upper DeSoto Falls & Dam

Located atop Lookout Mountain near Mentone, AL is the easily accessible DeSoto Falls.

Downstream from here is the main DeSoto Falls which plunges 104 feet. The upper falls is just a few feet upstream. Beyond that at the top of the photo is a 1920s hydroelectric A.A. Miller Dam.

Rock City's Fairyland Caverns: Little Miss Muffet

After spending some time trying to see seven states and various unusual rock formations, visitors to Rock City finish their visit along the Enchanted Trail by enjoying the sights of Fairyland Cavern.

When Fairyland Caverns first opened, most of the scenes consisted of their gnome collection and related decor fitting a fairy tale theme, all moved into a new section of the park that needed a purpose. Then in the late 40s, Rock City hired Atlanta artist Jessie Sanders to create the glow-in-the-dark scenes from popular fairy tales and these are the scenes that still exist today.

The first thing Mrs. Sanders crafted was a deer that stands next to Snow White. From there, she created individual displays for different tales. Other than the first two scenes (which depict a mother reading bedtime stories to the children and then the children asleep with "Dream Faries" flittering about) she was given free reign to create the scenes as inspiration struck. As the figures were cast from her Atlanta studio, they would be shipped to Rock City and installed after another artist, Marcus Lilly, would paint the backdrops. Jessie's husband Charles also helped create many of the props that are seen today.

After Jessie Sanders spent about a decade creating all of the vistas along the main hallway, she envisioned her most elaborate display in 1958. Mother Goose's Village was to be a large room with a miniature mountain, adorned by a castle, and many fairy tale characters seamlessly placed together to save the attraction's best for last. After six years of construction, the fantastic finale was opened to the public in May, 1964 delighting young and old since.

On my website, I have created a gallery entitled "A Tour of Rock City" where I not only have tried to photograph each individual display in Fairyland Caverns and much of Mother Goose's Village, but all the other wondrous scenes at the beloved tourist attraction.
seemidtn.com/gallery/index.php?album=chattanooga%2Frock-city

See Rock City for $3.99

This is exactly what it looks like. It's a flower pot full of See Rock City Barn shaped birdhouse pencil-toppers on the floor of the Rock City gift shop. I bought a Christmas Tree Ornament instead.

Cravens House - Lookout Mountain

The Cravens House is the oldest surviving structure on Lookout Mountain, and was the home of Robert Cravens, a pioneer Chattanooga Industrialist. The home is located on a shelf-like ledge of the eastern slope of Lookout Mountain and provides a great overlook of Chattanooga. The house was a major focal point in the Civil War "Battle Above the Clouds" on Nov. 24, 1863.

Today, the house is under the oversight of the National Park Service as part of the National Battlefield and free tours are offered on Saturday and Sunday Afternoons. See the historical marker here:
seemidtn.com/gallery/index.php?album=historical-markers%2...

Sallie Howard Memorial Church - Mentone, AL

Atop Lookout Mountain near Mentone, AL is a place where someone literally followed the passage in the gospel of Matthew, "Upon this rock I will build my church."

Col. Milford Howard was born in 1862. In 1894, he was elected to the US House of Representatives from Alabama after writing a book entitled "If Christ Came to Congress." By 1908, he ran for President but failed to win the nomination of the Independence Party.

in 1923, Howard moved to Hollywood where he produced, wrote and starred in a movie called "The Bishop of the Ozarks." Soon after the film was released, Milford's wife Sallie died. At the Los Angeles cemetery where she was buried, he was inspired by their chapel. After a brief second marriage and writing a book praising Fascism, he searched his vast Lookout Mountain property to find a rock he could build a church around.

In the spring on 1937, construction began on the rustic church building that has a giant boulder at the pulpit. A quote from Sallie has been etched into a support beam, "God Has All Ways Been As Good To Me As I Would Let Him Be." The church was dedicated June 27, 1937. Milford died a few months later and his wish was for his ashes to be placed inside the rock.

Grace's High Falls - Lookout Mountain in Alabama

As Alabama's highest waterfall, Grace's High Falls is a 133 foot seasonal waterfall that cascades off the cliffs. (The falls do not usually flow much in the summer.) Located in the Little River Canyon National Preserve in Northeast Alabama, the observation deck is located across the canyon along the Little River Canyon scenic highway. You can see a video of this waterfall and others in DeKalb County here: youtu.be/SZTmOY8y6UM?t=5m41s

Upper DeSoto Falls & Dam

Located atop Lookout Mountain near Mentone, AL is the easily accessible DeSoto Falls.

Downstream from here is the main DeSoto Falls which plunges 104 feet. The upper falls is just a few feet upstream. Beyond that at the top of the photo is the 1920s hydroelectric A.A. Miller Dam.

Morning Fog and Lookout Mountain

It's a few minutes after sunrise and there is a fog that permeates through Chattanooga. This picture is taken from the top corner room at the Downtown Marriott Convention Center in 2004.