We’d heard that Chattanooga is an outdoor lover’s playground for hiking, backpacking, biking, and paddling, but is it so during a pandemic? The answer is…it depends. Teasing out current information about COVID-related closures and protocols was challenging. A Venn diagram of what was open, when it’s open, and personal restrictions (no crowded indoor spaces) left us with just a couple of options. Maybe next time, Rock City, Ruby Falls, and the Incline Railway. We’ll check out Lookout Mountain a different way.
Lookout Mountain is a broad ridge that sprawls across the borders of Alabama, Georgia and Tennessee, and has been a witness to centuries of historic conflicts, most recently the Civil War. Aside from the human infrastructure on top of the mountain and the portions designated as part of the National Park Service (Point Park and Cravens House), there are 30+ miles of hiking trails. Jim and I were just looking for a little morning hike with a great view.
Chickamauga & Chattanooga National Military Park has several locations, including Lookout Mountain. If you’re looking for information in that regard, you won’t find it in this blog post, but here are some links for you:
Chickamauga & Chattanooga National Military Park main website here
Lookout Mountain here
Cravens House here
Lookout Mountain Trail system here
Access to Point Park was closed. Cravens House was also closed but the parking was open, so we at least had a starting point to the Bluff Mountain Trail to Sunset Rock.
[Our rambling sort-of-a-loop route: Cravens House Trail to Bluff Mountain Trail to Sunset Rock, then return via Bluff Mountain Trail (below Umbrella Rock) to Mountain Beautiful Trail to Cravens-to-Mountain-Beautiful Trail back to the parking area.]
Here we go!
We spent our afternoon doing touristy-because-we’re-tourists kinds of things like the Tennessee Valley Railroad Museum and the fabulous Hunter Museum (both open with COVID protocols and masks). We walked across the Walnut Street Bridge to get ice cream and then walked back to Coolidge Park.
[Nashville, Memphis and Chattanooga all have something that Charlotte doesn’t have: a river running through it with lovely pedestrian bridges.]
the Tennessee River and a squiggly section of the Riverwalk
Coolidge ParkOur time in Chattanooga barely scratched the surface of outdoor and urban fun to be had around the area. We will return post-COVID to check out more trails on Lookout Mountain and Point Park (for real) and sections of the Cumberland Trail and nearby state parks and Chickamauga Lake and Montague Park and the Bessie Smith Cultural Center and…
…and we haven’t even talked about the breweries…Chattanooga Brewing Company, Big Frog Brewing Company, Naked River Brewing…
Jim and I had a grand Tour de Tennessee, looking for adventure in what turned out to be the early days of COVID-19. Here’s to brighter, safer, healthier days ahead! Cheers!
“Travel – it leaves you speechless,
then turns you into a storyteller.”
~Ibn Battuta
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