Lookout Mountain, Tennessee: An Overview

If you’ve ever driven anywhere even close to the southeastern United States, then you’ve probably seen a barn with the words “See Rock City” or “See 7 States” painted on the roof. Maybe you’ve seen it on a billboard, or seen the name “Ruby Falls” or other delights to behold “atop Lookout Mountain” in Chattanooga, TN. And you might think that Lookout Mountain is a tourist’s playground.

And with over a million visitors a year, it definitely is. But it’s also a thriving residential community with homes, schools, a college, churches, plus five old-school Chattanooga attractions: Rock City, Ruby Falls, the Incline, Point Park, and Cravens House.

As someone who worked on Lookout Mountain for 13 years and would occasionally run into travelers looking for “Lookout Mountain” as if it were a gated theme park, let me lay out a general overview of the area.

HISTORY

Civil War

During the American Civil War, Chattanooga was fought over as a strategic transportation and supply hub because of its railroad system and the Tennessee River. Part of this fighting occurred on Lookout Mountain during the “battle above the clouds,” referring to the dense foggy conditions that can often occur on the mountain.

Apparently, while Union and Confederate soldiers were hanging around waiting to fight each other, they noticed a lot of unusual rock formations. They talked about them when they got back home and Lookout Mountain really started to become a place to visit. In those days, taking walks around large boulders you have to squeeze between or seeing a rock shaped like a face was a vacationer’s idea of a good time.

Post-Civil War

And then there’s that fantastic view of Chattanooga from the tip of the mountain that is now Point Park. This is what I heard: back when things were first getting going on Lookout, a war widow owned most of the top of the mountain, including the point. Her son just so happened to own the only carriage service up the mountain, so they made themselves a little monopoly. But alas, others owned land on the sides of the mountain, so they built a huge tall hotel right smack in front of her view. You can see the foundations of the hotel in Point Park today.

Eventually, the war widow sold off her land and folks started building summer houses to escape the city, which eventually turned into year-round housing. Parts of the mountain were set aside as part of the Chickamauga Battlefield system in 1890 as USA’s first National Military Park, created by veterans from both sides of the conflict. This transferred to the National Park Service in 1933.

Early 20th Century

In 1929, Leo Lambert built an attraction from some subterranean caverns and a waterfall, naming it Ruby Falls after his wife. And in 1932, Garnet Carter built an attraction around the most interesting rock formations, which is now Rock City. (He also created the first miniature golf course, on what is now the front lawn of Covenant College.)

GETTING AROUND

There are two main ways to get up the mountain from Chattanooga. Scenic Highway comes off South Broad Street/11/2/64 and will take you by the Cravens House and Ruby Falls to the top of the mountain. If you continue on Scenic by hanging a left at the fountain and a right at the 4-way stop, it will take you by Covenant College and on eventually towards Mentone, AL, which is quite a nice drive.

Ochs (pronounced “ox”) highway is what the locals use, and it’s steeper and curvier and will take you right to Rock City. Either way, once you are on the mountain, there are loads of black pointer signs directing you to where you want to go. Keep in mind that the speed limit is 25. Folks walk in the middle of the street up here, so watch out.

ATTRACTIONS

Rock City

Rock City is the main headliner here and everyone should see it at least once. These are all the biggest rock formations, with paths through huge boulders and fantastic overlooks. One should bring a decent sense of humor about all the fairytale elements–you’ll see far more black-lit gnomes than you probably care to. And do yourself a favor and read this Roadside America article about the large black light room near the end.

But gosh, Rock City is fun, especially for kids. Keep a lookout for holiday events, especially during November and December when they put up thousands of Christmas lights for evening walkthroughs. It’s not to be missed.

1-day admission: $21.95/$12.95 (adult/child)
Rock City + Ruby Falls: $36.90/21.90
Rock City + Ruby Falls + Incline: $49.90/$26.90

Ruby Falls

Ruby Falls is the other mountain headliner, located halfway up the side of the mountain via Scenic Hwy. Here, you’ll take an elevator down into a long underground cave system past stalactite/stalagmite formations and eventually to a tall, underground, dramatically-lit waterfall. They have expanded in recent years to include a ropes course and zip line (above ground, of course.)

If you happen to visit during the fall, Ruby Falls puts on the best haunted house in the city! I’m not sure what all is involved, but I’ve heard it’s amazing.

1-day admission: $19.95/$11.95 (adult/child)

The Incline Railway

The Incline, “America’s Most Amazing Mile” is an inclined railway that goes straight up the side of the mountain and is quite steep at the top. Your seats in the rail car are tilted to accommodate for this, so I’m not sure if wheelchairs are allowed. This is definitely the most tourist-trappy of anything on Lookout—there’s a gift shop and ice cream at the bottom and a gift shop and fudge at the top—but it’s also the most thrilling. It reminds me slightly of being on a roller coaster. There’s a nice view from a deck at the top station, and you can walk easily from there to Point Park on the sidewalk.

This location is actually Incline #2. There was a #1 that took a longer, less steep route and a smaller-gauge line from there (#3?) that had its end station directly underneath the Point Hotel. You can still see places where the Incline #1’s tracks used to be at the top of Scenic Highway.

1 round-trip ticket: $15/$7 (adult/child)

Point Park

Point Park is the official memorial to Civil War action on the mountain. This is the place for history and GREAT views, plus there are loads of trails that branch out from here. Down to Cravens House, and around the edge of the mountain to Sunset Rock and on around to Covenant College and more.

Entrance: $7 for 16+, 15 and under free
*Tickets are via machine and I’m not sure if they take credit cards. The last time I was there, I paid with a $20 bill and got a ton of Susan B Anthony dollar coins back! That was fun, but I didn’t like having to tote them around while hiking.

Cravens House

Near Ruby Falls on Scenic Hwy, Cravens House is a pre-civil war home that was occupied by various forces during the war as a headquarters and a hospital. They used to do house tours, but that seems to no longer be available.

This area is very well connected to a trail system covering the mountain. From here you can park free and walk up to Point Park or Sunset Rock, or along any of the many trails.

FOOD

Lookout Mountain only has one proper restaurant, the wonderful Café on the Corner. It’s halfway between Rock City and Point Park on Lula Lake, next to the Post Office. At Rock City, there is a Starbucks across the street, plus a fast food counter and very decent table-service restaurant at the attraction itself. Ruby Falls offers deli-style food, and there are snacks at the top and bottom of the Incline, including an outpost of the wonderful Clumpie’s Ice Cream.

There is one small grocery store on Lula Lake with a nice wine shop in the back. It’s a little high-priced, but they have a great deli counter in the back and lots of fun treats. It would be an easy place to make a picnic for the nearby park.

There are many excellent restaurants at the base of the mountain including, 1885 Grill, Mojo Burrito, Mr. T’s Pizza, and Purple Daisy BBQ. On Broad Street, there’s Mike’s Smokehouse and several fast food places. Furthur down you’ll find Boccaccia Italian and Southern Star, then once you get downtown proper, there are plenty of options from burgers to Thai.

LODGING

There aren’t any hotels on Lookout, but there are two pretty fantastic Bed & Breakfasts. The Chanticleer Inn is right across the street from Rock City, and the Garden Walk is around the corner on Lula Lake. A good friend of mine has an Airbnb right across the street from Rock City and there are a few other Airbnb options on the mountain as well. Make sure to check both the Tennessee and Georgia sides.

There are several low-cost hotels near the base of the mountain, but read reviews carefully. Some of them can be a little ghetto. For true class, The Chattanoogan on Broad Street puts you in a good middle place to enjoy both Lookout Mountain and downtown Chattanooga.

MISCELLANEOUS

Sunset Rock

I’ve mentioned Sunset Rock a few times, and it is a great hike, but note that you’re only allowed to park for an hour or two at the little parking lot at the trailhead. They can be pretty strict about it, so don’t overstay your welcome or risk getting a parking ticket. This small parking lot is on West Brow, so if you’re on Scenic Hwy, hang a right at the fountain and just keep going on West Brow until you see it on your left.

For a decent exercise loop without a ton of elevation change, you can walk from Point Park on the Bluff Trail to Sunset Rock, then back to Point Park along the road. There are still some stairs at either end, but Bluff Trail itself is pretty flat. Just watch out for rock climbers!

Historic Hotels

You can see evidence of some of the old grand hotels: in Point Park, the foundations for the old Point Hotel that they built right in front of stingy war widow’s view can be seen. The old Incline used to end up here.

At the top station of the current Incline, you can see a little plot of land with paths and stairs. I *think* this used to be the location of the Lookout Mountain hotel, but it’s all neighborhoods now.

Covenant College down Scenic Hwy used to be a grand old hotel and there are even stories of Al Capone and escape tunnels used during prohibition. It’s a Presbyterian College now so it’s changed a lot, but it’s still very pretty.