24 hours in Chattanooga, TN

A cousin and his wife were on a mission to show their grand kids America the beautiful. While on their 6-day road trip from Florida to Texas, they swung over to see us. With only 24 hours in Chattanooga and rain in the forecast, it was a challenge to show them this great outdoorsy city.

Hiking to the waterfalls was out of the question. We opted for Raccoon Mountain to learn about turbines and the generation of electricity.

The cloudy weather with a few sprinkles here and there created this gorgeous vista of the spectacular Tennessee River Gorge with fog enveloping the mountain and river.

do you see what I see? a barge appearing (viewed from Raccoon Mountain Visitor Center)

Around lunch time, we went to get pizza at our preferred pizza joint in Jasper. We had forgotten this town is on central time, so we were early. To kill time, the gung ho captain drove to nearby Foster Falls for a quick look. The rain had quit, and the sun tried to peek through every now and then.

Foster Falls

It was sprinkling again when we picked up the pizza. Back at the marina, the rain stopped and the sun appeared again, promising a good day.We could tell our guests were eager for a boat ride. And the captain happily complied.

Beautiful sight of osprey and cormorants hanging out together

As we were dropping the hook at our favorite cove, the rain started again. This time it came down hard. We moved our lunch from the flybridge to the salon (nice to have dual helm station for inclement weather). We had recently salvaged some old home videos and took the opportunity to show the kids their parents' wedding. Little did they know their grandfather can sing!

Half hour later, all was dry and the sun re-appeared. We cruised up river a little before heading back to the marina.

Next stop: Lookout Mountain. We drove past the touristy places like Rock City and Ruby Falls, and went up all the way to the top - Point Park, where battles between the North and South were fought during the Civil War. It was 6 pm. The Visitor Center was closed, so we just walked around to admire the scenery.

We went back to Chattanooga downtown to take some pictures.

Walnut Street Pedestrian Bridge

Hunter Museum

We were now starving for some barbecue. In downtown, we usually go Sticky Fingers. How was it? Read my review on TripAdvisor here.


So that completes our whirlwind tour of Chattanooga. We hope they enjoyed it as much as we did showing them our adopted city.

You might also like:

Now You See It, Now You Don't	Exploring Chattanooga, Tennessee	Floating down the Tennessee River

Experience