Chattanooga's ROCK CITY & RUBY FALLS ... Just Passin' Through With the Kids
Written: Mar 23 '04 (Updated Sep 02 '07)
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Wholesome and slightly unusual family fun... Nice scenery... Not crowded
Cons: Both attractions are EXPENSIVE.
The Bottom Line: Rock City and Ruby Falls are interesting, enjoyable and scenic attractions, but certainly not among our all time favorites.
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| radioroger's Full Review: Chattanooga |
We scheduled Chattanooga as a mid-day break during the long drive back home to Ohio from Pensacola. I decided to take my family to Rock City and Ruby Falls more for nostalgic reasons than my perceived quality of the attractions. Quaintly charming, these two aging attractions are well known for their "SEE ROCK CITY" barn roofs and "VISIT RUBY FALLS" highway signs... now considered classics of highway marketing. Many children of the 50's and 60's remember these signs and attractions with fondness. I wanted to re-live my experiences as a 9-year-old with my own two children... 10 and 12-year-old girls.
Ruby Falls and Rock City Gardens (the full and proper name) are both situated atop Lookout Mountain, a massive and historically significant mountain just south of downtown Chattanooga and the Tennessee River. The two sites are actually a few miles apart. In fact, Ruby Falls is in Tennessee and Rock City is in Georgia. Although they are two separate entities, Ruby Falls and Rock City have marketed themselves together for decades, doubling the appeal for motorists to drive up the side of a big mountain.
This is the kind of stuff that I usually save for the end... but before I get into the meat ‘n' potatoes of my review, it's important to mention that both attractions are quite costly, perhaps excessively so. Neither attraction requires more than an hour and a half to see all that they have to offer. As of 2004, Ruby Falls is $12.95 for adults and $5.95 for kids (3-12). Rock City is $12.95 for adults and $6.95 for kids. That's over 75 bucks for a family of 4 to visit both places... and that's before souvenirs and food. Opportunities to spend additional cash abound. If "dollars per hour" value is a priority, you can stay on the highway to your next destination without feeling that your life is incomplete. If you decide to visit both Rock City and Ruby Falls (and perhaps the Incline Railway), various combo tickets are available at substantial savings over the individual tickets. See their websites for more details.
RUBY FALLS:
Ruby Falls is the easier of the two attractions to access. It's only about two miles from I-24 Exit 175, and is about halfway up the mountain. Yes, Ruby Falls is an actual waterfall, a 145-foot UNDERGROUND waterfall. It's not named for the color of the water or rock formations, nor is it named for any gemstones found within the caves. Ruby Falls is actually named after the wife if it's discoverer, Leo Lambert. Since it was first opened to the public in 1929, Ruby Falls has been seen by millions of visitors. The entrance to Ruby Falls is housed within an unusual stone building. The structure has a large ivy-covered tower resembling that of a gothic castle. Visitors who climb to the top of the tower are rewarded with a beautiful view of Chattanooga. The grounds are beautifully-landscaped. Tours begin every 15 minutes and are about an hour long. We did not have to wait for a tour, although our group seemed to be quite large, maybe 30 people. The experience begins with an 1100-foot elevator ride to the caverns below. The elevator has a window, allowing visitors to see the rock through which they are rapidly descending and to perceive the depth to which they are traveling.
The caverns are a constant 60 degrees year round. That may be a little too cool for some, but for us, it was a welcome respite from the heat and humidity outdoors. We were quite comfortable in shorts and t-shirts. Our tour passed many stalactites, stalagmites and other unusual formations named after the subjects that they resemble (e.g. "fish", "bacon", "cactus and the candle"). Some of the formations are illuminated with white incandescent lights. Some are illuminated with colored lights. The tour culminates with a view of Ruby Falls itself. If you have visited other caves and caverns elsewhere, you may find the tour's "minor" attractions to be rather ordinary. However, this unusual waterfall sets this attraction apart. Located within what is by far the largest chamber on the tour, the water emerges from about a 3-foot-wide hole in the chamber ceiling. The narrow stream of water gradually widens to a width of about 8-10 feet as it hits the pool 145 feet below where it emerged. A very narrow trail circling the falls allows visitors to take a close look... a very close look. In fact, those who choose to walk around the falls will probably get a bit damp. To the sounds of dramatic piped-in music (resembling a cross between "Also Sprach Zarathustra" and the soundtrack to any of the "NFL Films"), the falls is illuminated with alternating natural white lights and colored lights. The allotted time to view the falls is very brief. I'm guessing about 5 minutes... certainly less than 10 minutes. At the end of this time, the music ends, the lights on the falls go dark and you begin your trek to the elevator back from whence you came.
I gotta mention the tour guide... a mumbling tennis-shoe clad teenager. His garbled monotone delivery revealed his weariness of repeating the same lines over and over and over and over to wide-eyed tourists all summer long. The sound of his nasal voice become exponentially more cloying as our tour progressed. No matter what words he was using, he seemed to be saying, "I am so bored. When is this day gonna end? I hate all of you." His voice wavered only when he delivered the punchline of some tired, corny joke, in order to indicate to the tourists that it was time to laugh. No one did. Fortunately, at several of the stops along the way, the kid pushed a button that would start a recorded professional voiceover describing the feature.
Of course, tourists are routed through a gift shop on the way to the exit. It is actually a decent gift shop (by tourist attraction standards) with all the usual mementoes. There is also a very nice playground for the younger kids.
Although the trail within the caverns is flat, it is at times very narrow. Stairsteps are infrequent and are only about 4 or 5 at a time. I'm 6'2", and I experienced a few challenges... horizontally and vertically. The Ruby Falls tour is completely inaccessible to wheelchairs and those who have difficulty walking. It's too narrow for any wheelchair and there are few, if any, places to sit. There's nobody to blame except Mother Nature, but it must be mentioned in order to avoid disappointment.
ROCK CITY GARDENS:
Both Rock City Gardens and Ruby Falls are enjoyable attractions, but we all enjoyed Rock City more. Rock City is about a 10 or 15 minute drive from Ruby Falls. You must drive through a labyrinth of streets and roads to get there, but the route is clearly marked. There are signs and arrows at every major intersection. Open since 1932, Rock City is essentially a 4100-foot hiking trail with numerous and diverse sights and activities along the way. The tree-lined trail winds among giant sandstone boulders, through tunnels, across and under stone bridges, through tight crevasses, and among many labeled species of local flora. Some areas are accented with soothing background music.
The attractions along the trail include:
The Grand Corridor - A tree lined walk lined with plants and sandstone cliffs
Needles Eye - One of two narrow passages that the trail passes through
Deer Park - A small area with some white deer on display. You can buy 25 cents worth of pellets and feed them.
Mushroom Rock - An 8-foot tall rock shaped like a mushroom... good photo op.
Swing-A-Long Bridge - A rickety 2-foot-wide and 180-foot-long swinging pedestrian bridge made of steel cables and creaky wooden slats spanning a deep valley between two sandstone formations. It's scary. My older daughter wouldn't cross it. An easy detour is available.
High Falls - A tall waterfalls emerging from under a stone bridge on the side of the mountain
Lovers Leap - A terrace from which you can "view 7 states" (debatable) and enjoy a spectacular view of the Tennessee River valley below
7 States Flag Court - They claim you can see 7 states from this vantage point... Alabama, Georgia, Kentucky, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, and Virginia. The flags of these states fly on separate poles below the US flag.
Fat Man's Squeeze - The second (aptly-named) narrow passage. If I had eaten just one more donut for breakfast, I would have had to turn around and go back the way I'd come.
1000 Ton Balanced Rock - A huge sandstone boulder precariously perched upon two narrow rock "legs"
Mother Goose Village is a relatively recent addition to Rock City Gardens... added for extra kid-appeal. Curiously, very few details about Mother Goose Village appear on the Rock City website. Located near the end of the Rock City trail, Mother Goose Village is within an artificial "cave" and is very different from the rest of the park. It features a series of small dioramas, each representing a scene from a Mother Goose nursery rhyme or story. Now... I honestly mean this as a compliment... it was slightly creepy. The building... er... "cave" was very dark, with black lights as the only illumination upon the fluorescent dioramas. Most of the figures are innocent and pretty, but we get an occasional reminder of the violence and stories of survival found within Mother Goose stories in their original form. Mother Goose Village looks like a giant model train landscape erected at the rear of a Spencer Gifts store, but instead of train stations and water towers, you'll see Hansel & Gretel confronting the witch who wishes to eat them, Cinderella in her pumpkin-carriage and the Big Bad Wolf hiding behind a tree... all in their psychedelic ultraviolet glory.
Mother Goose herself is a staple at Rock City. She's a kindly retired elementary school teacher. She looks the part as she dons an authentic-looking Mother Goose outfit and sports a goose puppet with her left hand. Her love of children is clearly genuine. She and her puppet talk and play with the visiting kids and she gladly poses for photos.
For the sake of convenience, we ate lunch at the Big Rock Café, located at Rock City's entrance. The gabled roof and stone exterior are attractive. The interior is spacious and nicely decorated. On the surface, it may appear to be an upscale family restaurant, but make no mistake, this is nothing more than a glorified fast food joint with inflated prices. Although we spent nearly $30 for 2 adults and 2 kids... there's no table service, the staff is indifferent and the food was typical fast food fare. I ordered a Philly cheesesteak because it was the most exotic thing on the menu. The kids ate chicken fingers and fries. If you're spending most of the day atop Lookout Mountain, you'll be OK eating here. If you're just going to be here for 2 or 3 hours, then it's more economical to stop at McD's at the bottom of the mountain. The food and service are about the same.
Unfortunately, Rock City is difficult for those with disabilities... Mother Nature again... However, Rock City does provide a "VIP Tour". This is a shortened, escorted tour along an employee trail. Although it doesn't provide access to most of the parks attractions, it does allow access to the scenic view from the Lovers Leap terrace and the "see 7 states" flag court.
Rock City doesn't have the flash and panache of more modern family attractions, but its nostalgic charm is oddly endearing. It's not an overwhelming sensory blitz, just a pleasantly unusual hour of family fun.
Parking at Rock City and Ruby Falls was not a problem and crowds were not bad. However, we visited early in the day in late August, when the tourist season was beginning to wind down, so crowds are likely bigger in June and July. Rock City is open from 8:30 AM - 8 PM from May 25 to September 2. They close earlier the rest of the year. Ruby Falls is open from 8 AM - 8 PM all year.
Rock City and Ruby Falls are interesting, enjoyable and scenic attractions, but certainly not among our all time favorites.
TO SEE OUR ROCK CITY & RUBY FALLS FAMILY VACATION PHOTOS, PLEASE VISIT MY TRAVEL WEBSITE:
http://www.mikebechtol.com
Ruby Falls Website:
www.rubyfalls.com
Rock City Gardens Website:
www.seerockcity.com
Recommended:
Yes
Best Suited For: Families
Best Time to Travel Here: Jun - Aug
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radioroger
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Location: Rural Ohio
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