Rock City enchanted garden of lights 2018

If you have never been to Rock City during Christmastime, what are you waiting for?! You should totally go. It is as enchanting as the “Enchanted Garden of Lights” name suggests. They go all out and it is super fun, especially if you have kiddos in tow. 

WHAT TO EXPECT

If you’ve ever been to Rock City during the day, throw most of what you know out the window. The Christmas path will take you on a totally different route, opening up regularly unused areas and bypassing other sections entirely. 

There are several different “trails” to take through the Gardens in whatever order you would like but it’s easy to do them all as a one-way path through the gardens. We only got confused once after the first section when we popped out into the main gift shop and out the front. You are supposed to walk past an official photographer and we got off the path by avoiding the photographer. You don’t *have* to get your picture taken, but you do have to get in the line to stay on the path. You’ve been warned. 

Note that there are paths in the gardens accessible for wheelchair use–mostly the main thoroughfare through the middle–but the majority of the gardens will include stairs and tight spaces. 

ENTRY GATE

When you arrive at Rock City, you’ll be directed where to park, which will probably be behind the Starbucks across the street. Cross the street to the entrance plaza, and tell the nice lady how many tickets you want and where you’re from.

From there, you’ll follow a path of snowflakes to the entrance, housed in the original 1932 gatehouse. 

Once you reach the old gatehouse, they’ll take your ticket and give you a map and point you in the right direction. (And I happen to know that if you manage to lose your ticket during the short walk between the two gatehouses, they will accept your receipt…) 

MAGIC FOREST

The first trail is directly on your left past the gate. The first section of this trail is the only part with dancing lights set to music, and is a great start to your evening! 

DANCING TREES

MAGIC VALLEY

Past the Dancing Trees, you walk through the Magic Valley, with lights covering the trees and light-up flowers along the path. 

FAIRYLAND CAVERNS

Once you enter the caverns, you see a lot of what you would normally see in here, with extra lights and some Christmas decorations on the psychedelic black-light nursery rhyme figures. 

MOTHER GOOSE VILLAGE

Mother Goose Village is the black-light fantasy that it has always been, with some added lights and Christmas trees here and there. It is at this point that it’s most helpful to have children along so you can spend your time pointing out familiar sights (instead of shuffling along like so many black-lit zombies.) Make sure you find the dragon! 

After exiting the caverns, you’ll encounter a sweet little Holiday Marketplace with leather goods and beer for sale before you enter the large gift shop. This is normally where your day tour would end, but make your way to the front and take a hard right past the photographer to begin the next trail. Alternately, you could stop here for a meal at the Big Rock Grill. 

YULE TOWN

Exiting the back of the gift shop, you descend the stairs into the Grand Corridor and the path towards Yule Town. 

GRAND CORRIDOR

NATIVITY SCENE

NEEDLE’S EYE

Just past the Nativity Scene is the tightest squeeze of the trip, the Needle’s Eye. 

TOY LAND

Coming up from the rocks, the path turns to toys, snowmen, and toy soldiers! 

ARCTIC KINGDOM

After popping up out of the Yule Town trail, you are right across from the entrance to the Arctic Kingdom.

ICE QUEEN & JACK FROST

You can meet two costumed character on the Arctic Kingdom trail, Inara the Ice Queen and Jack Frost. It’s chiefly a photo op, but they are great with kids and will stamp a passport given to all children as they enter the gardens. 

NORTH POLE VILLAGE

Once you cross the stone bridge, you’re into North Pole Village, the home of Santa Claus and several food options. This is at Lover’s Leap at the top of the waterfall, so it is the chilliest spot during the tour. 

Next to the Gingerbread House display, there’s a counter service spot with beer, gourmet hot chocolates, and inventive southern food. I ended up with mulled wine that was pretty good. Inside, there’s a spot for funnel cake and pizza along with souvenir shopping. 

Attached to the shop is a spot to get your picture taken with Santa! He was a good one too, and there are plenty of opportunities to purchase immediately after your pic is taken. 

CHRISTMAS PLAZA

Just below North Pole Village is an outdoor area set up with tables, a firepit, a few more places to shop, and a maker of “reindeer corn”, similar to candy corn. We sat here and snacked a bit before moving on. 

Above Christmas Plaza, there is the North Pole Lodge. You can get there by walking up some stairs or by Snowman Rock. I highly recommend going via Snowman Rock. He’s huge! 

NORTH POLE LODGE

There are several activities in the North Pole Lodge. Mrs. Claus will greet you and stamp your passport. With stamps from both Mrs. Claus and Jack Frost, you are entitled to a discounted hot chocolate, which you can purchase at a beverage stand inside the lodge. 

Across from the drinks is a Gingerbread Cookie Decoration Station, where for the purchase of a $3.75 cookie, you can decorate it with available icings and flotsam to your heart’s desire. 

The big event in the lodge is the nightly entertainment at 6:30 pm. The night we visited, it was the Chattanooga Boys Choir. We didn’t end up hearing any of their set, but it must have lasted about an hour since they were wrapping up just as we were snacking in the plaza below at around 7:30 or so. If you want to be sure to hear the musical act, you might need to rearrange your evening instead of walking straight through the gardens as we did. 

Also in the North Pole Lodge is a charming Toy Soldier–an actual man slowly moving, greeting children, blowing kisses, and occasionally handing out oversize gold coins to kids (they might be chocolate–I didn’t check.) I wish I had got a picture of this guy–he was good. But it is always a bit crowded in this room, so getting pics is tougher. 

NORTH POLE HIGHWAY

From the North Pole Lodge, you can head on a wide path straight back to the start (or conversely, you can head straight here at the start to get a seat for the music concert.) Along here you’ll find beautiful gold-and-white trees, helpful guides, wood and metal sculptures, wide log swings, and a Nativity Show. 

The Nativity Show features a full-size creche with lit figures of the holy family, the Bethlehem star, the wise men, and a few animals, each of whom light up as their part of the story is told via a repeating vocal track. 

At the very end of the Highway, near where you come in, is a “We’ve seen Rock City” photo op.

EXITING THE GARDENS

When you’re ready to leave, bear left off the North Pole Highway right across from the Arctic Kingdom entrance and before the little Tom Thumb golf hole. Right around here is another great bench for a photo opportunity before you leave for the night. 

Moving towards the exit walks you past a few more lit trees and displays and a fun firetruck photo op for kids. Then you’re back at the large gift shop and can do some more shopping before you head back to your car. Make sure to pick up a birdhouse! 

HOW TO VISIT

If you would like to visit Rock City’s Enchanted Garden of Lights, the nightly event will continue through December 31. The event starts at 4 pm, but most of the action, like Santa Claus and the music in the Magic Forest, doesn’t start until 6 pm. The musical performances generally start at 6:30 pm. You have to “choose your last realm to enter” by 10:30 pm, so I imagine the whole thing shuts down around 11:00, or until they can get everyone out of the woods. 

Tickets cost $25 for adults on a regular night (Fridays and Sundays–$13 for kids 3-12.) $22/$12 on a weeknight (Mondays-Thursdays), $29/$15 on peak days (Saturdays, Thanksgiving & Christmas weekends), and occasional value nights at $17/$9 (already past on Dec. 2 and Nov. 18.) 

PHOTOGRAPHY TIPS & AVOIDING CROWDS

We did a good job avoiding the majority of the crowds by arriving at 6 pm. While we didn’t shop much, we did meander and snack and generally fool around and were exiting around 9 pm. I ended up making another pass for photos and found it to be even less crowded. I’m sure if you arrived even earlier and stayed later, you’d have plenty of opportunity for people-free pictures. 

I also want to mention that I used my new Pixel 3 for all the photos in this post and used the new Night Sight function with great success. Flash was pretty useless, even for faces, but the Night Sight worked extremely well. I also got a wrist strap so I wouldn’t drop my brand-new expensive phone on the rocks. 

I hope you get to enjoy the Rock City Enchanted Garden of Lights as much as we did!