Today we took a day trip to Chattanooga, Tennessee. Ash and I have alway wanted to check it out being that it’s been talked about as an up and coming city. So with Bean visiting we thought Chattanooga would be a good candidate for a day trip. We headed out around 9:30 am. Of course before we left, Bean had to pose a picture with the local mid town princess.
The drive from Atlanta was short, only about 1 hr 45 min. Our first stop was Ruby Falls, a subterrainean mile-long caveren that lead to a 145 underground waterfall.
Ruby Falls is named after the wife of the explorer who found this underground cavern. The caveren sits bellow the Look Out Mountain which overlooks the city of Cattanooga. Above the cavern is the castle which was built out of the rock displaced by the dig to the cavern.
The walk through the underground cavern (above) was a very cool experience. Almost a mile long, the tunnel is about two person shoulder width wide. The climate is always a cool 60 degrees and we had to take a elevator deep into the heart of the mountain to access the cavern.
We walked with a guide and saw numerous crevaces and undergroound pools of water giving us the feeling like we were ouselves exploring this underground world. At te end of the mile trek, we entered a large domed open area all natrually ocurring. The guide purposely dimmed the lights and all we could see what was the dim glow of green flood lights and the louding crashing of water. The feeling was similar to Lord of the Rings when the fellowship walked into the city of the dwarves. In fact, Bean and I made a few jokes about it as we walked through the cavern.
Then with a creshendow of music, the lights illuminated showing a vast catheral like area with a huge water fall. The site was very awesome to see and the crowd gasped and clapped! I tried my best to capture the waterfall but the two below the about the best I could do.
The water hollowed out the dome area that Ruby Falls is located; this area is sometimes referred to as “Solomon’s Templeâ€. By way of erosion the waterfall carved out this area. The progress of this natural process can be observed by studying the smooth sides of the limestone walls.
Before we left Ruby falls, I took a nice pic of a Christmas tree ornament in the lobby of the castle. I am quite pleased with how it came out! 🙂
