What a pleasant surprise visiting Chattanooga, Tennessee and hiking in Lookout Mountain, Georgia over a beautiful summer weekend! Being less than 2 hours from Atlanta, many families visit and do the typical tourist activities such as Ruby Falls, Rock City, Incline Railway, Tennessee Aquarium, and Chattanooga Choo Choo. With this as my last memory some 30 years prior, I was blown away at how much Chattanooga had grown up, or perhaps it was just me that had. Either way, this artsy foodie town with river views and nearby waterfall hikes is ‘Not Your Mama’s Chattanooga!’
Though we stayed in a dog friendly AirBnB on Lookout Mountain closer to our hiking destinations and taking rideshares into Chattanooga for dinner and drinks, an argument could easily be made for staying in the city which is easily walkable and offers free local transportation via the eco-friendly electric shuttles from CARTA as well as the Chatty Wagon app. We began our trip walking through the Bluff View Art District sculpture garden overlooking the Tennessee River at sunset followed by an incredible dinner with top notch service at the historic Back Inn Cafe, part of the area’s multi-home Bluff View Inn bed and breakfast network. Following dinner, we wandered down the paths and bridges that make up the Tennessee Riverwalk, passing modern art museums and sidewalk art pieces. Intrigued by the large pedestrian only Walnut Street Bridge, we diverted onto the historic landmark spanning the Tennessee River. Returning back to the southern shore of the river, a perfect final stop would be the rooftop Whiskey Thief bar at the swanky Edwin Hotel overlooking the bridge and river. Dinner the next night brought us to the Southside’s Public House in the mixed use Warehouse Row shopping center for upscale southern cuisine. Next door, their bar concept The Social serves up small plates along with live music and happy hour specials. A great after dinner spot a short walk away is the Flying Squirrel for drinks and dessert at the outdoor bar. For an amazing and filling breakfast which you’ll need with all the hiking, we really enjoyed the food and service at Mayan Kitchen in Downtown Chattanooga. The city also offers free outdoor concerts all summer every Friday and Saturday night in Miller Park and at the Riverfront respectively. A great resource we used was the Chattanooga Fun website.
If you’ve already ‘been there done that’ on the touristy daytime activities like most Atlantans, and much prefer to #optoutside, the nearby hikes on Lookout Mountain are a perfect respite. The not so secret anymore Lula Lake Land Trust is only open the first and last weekends of the month and requires a prepaid $15/car reservation as it often sells out at the max 85 cars/days. Greeted with a smile and a trail map, we followed the advice of making a loop using the gravel access road to Middle Trail then Bluff Trail for the spectacular views, though nothing special up the middle, we wished we had taken Bluff Trail the whole way. We then split up based on our own and our dogs’ abilities, with my boyfriend and his more athletic dog taking the challenging High Adventure Trail while my little lap dog and I continued on the easier Bluff Trail, meeting up to take the winding Lula Falls Trail down to the waterfall. Here we all relaxed and enjoyed the falls, though swimming is not allowed anywhere in the park. Use caution down here as I did slip on the algae coated rocks. We took the 'Old' Lula Falls Trail back up, which is a series of steep stairs, though shorter than the Lula Falls Trail. Shoutout to the nice lady who found my phone which had fallen out of my bag at the falls and my boyfriend who took all those stairs again to retrieve it! We almost missed the next small waterfall and bright blue-green pond if it wasn’t for the sound of the falls located on the right as we were heading back south on the connector path. We completed the loop along the North Creek Trail to the Ford Trail which required stepping on rocks in the water back to the gravel road leading out. We probably did about 4 miles total though with so many trails, less or more is feasible. With showers and tick checks complete (my dog had 4 on him!), we were ready to hit the town.
The following day we hiked at Cloudland Canyon State Park ($5/car), which happened to be their 81st birthday celebration with hotdogs and snacks served in front of the Interpretive Center between numerous covered picnic pavilions. In addition to the many hiking trials, the park has campsites, yurts, disc golf, horseback riding, fishing, and mountain biking. Using the Atlanta Trails site as a guide since the visitor center map was terrible, we started at the Main Overlook then continued around the paved Overlook Trail with the East Rim views. We continued to the Waterfalls Trail which eventually splits to Hemlock Falls to the right (more stairs, less impressive but less crowded) and Cherokee Falls to the left (less stairs, more impressive and crowded with swimming hole though not technically allowed often done). There are over 600 metal grate steps to the falls which the dogs were not too favorable of as well as copperheads reported on the trail and nesting nearby. Back at the top, we joined the West Rim Loop Trail forking right after the bridge to the first few overlooks then backtracking for time rather than continuing around, likely totaling around 4 miles again upon completion. It was in the woods along the West Rim Trail that we did spot a snake, black with yellow markings, just inches off the trail and heading our way. And if that’s not frightening enough, check out Lookout Mountain Hang Gliding nearby where you can learn from and fly tandem with a guide or just watch and enjoy the views like we did.
Overall, we found Chattanooga surprisingly clean and free of traffic especially compared to our hometown of Atlanta, but with all the new construction we saw I sure hope it stays that way. This particular July weekend was slow per the rideshare drivers, and all the trendy restaurants vastly outnumbered the people, both tourists and locals, leaving everything relatively uncrowded. Not only was all our food delicious, the service was effortlessly outstanding everywhere we went, like ‘slap your mama’ good. Ok don’t really do that, it’s just a phrase we use here in the South, but you can definitely tell her you had an amazing time in ‘Not Your Mama’s Chattanooga!’
