
Every Chattanooga native knows the first thing people say when you say you’re from Chattanooga is either, “Oh the Choo Choo!” or “See Rock City!” On every road trip, we pass the See Rock City barns over and over. When we had friends come in from out of town a few weeks ago, they went to see Rock City with their kids and we realized that we hadn’t even taken our own kids to see Rock City!
The next weekend, when my father-in-law and the kids’ cousins were in town, we decided it was time to remedy that. I hadn’t been since I was a child, so I was curious to see whether the Fat Man’s Squeeze was really as much of a squeeze or if the suspension bridge was as memorable as it was when I was little, or if you really could see seven states.

We loaded up the car and headed up the mountain for our Chattanooga tourist adventure. We got there around 10am, and the parking lot wasn’t too full and the line wasn’t bad. I would definitely recommend going early or on a weekday because as we were leaving, the line was getting longer.

It took about an hour and a half to see everything. Fat Man’s squeeze was still a squeeze, and the kids thought that was very neat. The suspension bridge was definitely not for those with a fear of heights! For a good photo op that takes a little effort, have one person take the other bridge across and snap a photo of you from there like our friends did! Mom doesn’t love heights so she volunteered to be the picture taker!
The view from Lover’s Leap is beautiful.
It was a little hazy, but we are convinced we saw seven states. There is even a cute café with tables with a view, so it would work out nicely to time it to have an early lunch there. While we were there, they had a band playing live music as well.

A trip to Rock City wouldn’t be complete without seeing all the gnomes!
Towards the end of the walk-through Rock City, you go into the caves (which is also nice on a hot day because it was much cooler there) and walk-through different fairy tale scenes lit up with a black light. It is a little step back in time — maybe a little creepy feeling — it kind of seems like you’re getting a little look into something time forgot.

We can now all be official Chattanoogans and say we have seen Rock City!
