We set off this morning slightly confused because what we though was a 3 hour journey seemed to be saying it was going to take us 4 hours, all will be revealed later. Our first stop should have been a water cascade but we couldn’t find it, all we found was a very nicely landscaped housing estate, I have to say one of the nicer ones we have seen, so we continued towards Chattanooga. We stopped on route for some fuel, a milkshake and to change over driving, we even dipped into Georgia at one stage, but other than that our first stop was the Ruby Falls at Lookout Mountain which is very close to Chattanooga. Lookout Mountain is the southern most peak in the Appalachian Mountain Range. We wanted to do the Waterfall tour as this is an underground waterfall, but there was a massive queue so we decided to use the ticket machine. The first available slot was 2pm so we thought we would have a walk around and come back in just over an hours time. Something made me wonder why the first slot was an hour away and I decided to ask someone what the time was, it turns out we have crossed a time zone somewhere and it was about 10 minutes to 2 so we headed over to the cave entrance to queue to be taken into the caves. Interestingly these caves are at a constant 60 degrees unlike the ones in Australia that were at a constant 50 degrees. You start the tour by being taken 120 feet down in a lift – yes really only in America and you enter the cave complex. The caves were always known about by the locals but had to be closed up to allow the railroad to come through, then in 1928 a couple of locals decided to dig the lift shaft to allow the caves to become a tourist attraction. While the lift shaft was being excavated, a small opening was uncovered 260 feet below the surface. A small group entered the opening to explore the cave and discovered a number of rock formations and finally the waterfall. The tourist attraction opened with visits to the original cave but these were quickly closed down as all anyone wanted to see was the waterfall so by 1932 this was where the tourists were taken. The waterfalls claim to be the tallest and deepest underground waterfalls open to the public, although this could be because not many are actually open as they are fairly inaccessible. The falls drop 145 foot into a 5 foot pool, they are reached by a walk past a number of really interesting stalagmites and stalactites but unfortunately because you are on a tour and have to keep moving you don’t get to look at them very much. Finally when you reach the waterfall there is a bit of a sound and light show then it is time to turn round and walk back. The sound and light show is a bit of a shame as the waterfall itself is very impressive and in my mind didn’t need all the theatrics! Once we returned to the surface we walked to the Observation Towers which provides fantastic views over the Tennessee Valley, we tried to work out where we were staying but it was hard to see it although we did have a great view of the river. Once we had finished walking around we set off for the Incline Railway which goes up a different part of Lookout Mountain. This is reported to be the Worlds Steepest Passenger Railway, possibly because they call it a railway not a funicular but again we felt we have probably been up steeper railways in India but maybe they don’t count. The railway is one mile long and at its steepest the gradient of the track is 72.7% although this is only at the very end. The railway opened in 1895 and at the top you can look at photos of the original cars. They don’t seem to have replaced the cars that often although they do check and change the cable every 3 years. There are photos of the cars crossing at the halfway point where, for example, the 1949 car is going down and the 1987 car is going up, I hadn’t really thought about it before but if you have a track that runs both cars to counterbalance each other then when you make the change you will always have a point where the two different era’s cross. Again we walked to the Observation Deck which is the highest overlook point on Lookout Mountain, they say on a clear day you can see over 100 miles to the Great Smoky Mountains, although we had a great view I don’t think we could see that far. The engine room has glass walls so you can watch the machinery in action, when it first started the railway was run on coal and steam power but today it is all electric. We came back down and had planned to get an ice cream but they didn’t have very appetising flavours so we decided to head to the hotel instead. We are staying at the Chattanooga Choo Choo hotel in a Pullman carriage. The Hotel is actually the old station and after checking in we drove round the back to our room which is actually on railway tracks, we even have an engine at the front! We are in the last car which is actually quite useful as it means we didn’t have to take our luggage too far, the room still has the luggage racks and obviously our bed and a sofa as well as most importantly a fridge as we are a little way from the bar. I can see us being very happy for the next couple of nights in our new home.
