Lookout Mountain

Three separate attractions share the mountain. Ruby Falls is a waterfall about forty metres high inside the mountain, found in 1928 when Leo Lambert was drilling a lift shaft to reach a known cave and broke into an unknown passage instead; it is reached by lift and a long walk underground. Rock City is a garden of natural sandstone formations laid out with paths through narrow gaps, whose owner painted See Rock City on nine hundred barn roofs across the south from the 1930s - one of the more effective advertising campaigns in American history. The Incline Railway climbs the mountain at up to seventy-two percent grade near the top, one of the steepest passenger inclines anywhere.

What you actually see

• Ruby Falls - a forty-metre waterfall inside the mountain.
• Rock City - sandstone formations and the barn-roof campaign.
• The Incline Railway - up to seventy-two percent grade.
• A Civil War battlefield - Point Park at the northern end.

When to go

April to October. A full day for all three.

Honest expectations

Each attraction charges separately and they add up quickly. Ruby Falls involves a long underground walk in narrow passage. Summer queues are long. The Rock City claim of seven states visible is disputed and depends on conditions.

Nearby

Chattanooga is below; the Tennessee River Gorge is west.