Seeing the Scenic City – Page 9 – Exploring Chattanooga, Tennessee and surrounding areas

Booker T. Washington State Park

This morning we explored Booker T. Washington State Park, located on Chickamauga Lake. Booker T. Washington is the closest Tennessee State Park to Chattanooga.

Booker T. Washington has a few hiking trails to pick from. From what I’ve seen online, some of the longer ones are great for bicyclists. We picked the shorter Nature Trail, just over a mile long.

This was a nice trail. It is entirely wooded, and at times it runs along side the lake for a great view. The trail is a little rocky and covered with tree roots, so be careful and make sure you watch where you step!

The start of the trail is near the recreation area, where we hung out for a bit, enjoying the scenery. I am jealous of anyone who owns a boat or a kayak! We even saw a seaplane! It was a perfect morning for being out on the water.

Booker T. Washington State Park8 — At the edge of one of the recreation areas. There are pavilions, picnic tables and a playground.

Booker T. Washington State Park28 — A fishing pier.

Booker T. Washington State Park11 — I’ll take this boat, please. Or I’ll settle for being friends with these people!

Booker T. Washington State Park30 — Some really nice houses! Which one would you prefer to live in?

Booker T. Washington State Park33 — An orange seaplane flies over the lake.

Lookout Lavender Farm

My first job while living in Chattanooga was working for a start-up newspaper in Dade County, Georgia, which is just over the Tennessee/Georgia state line. One day this past winter, while searching for article ideas, I found Lookout Lavender Farm. While the farm is not in operation during the winter, it would make a great story come summer time. Well, the paper has since shut down, so no article could materialize, but that didn’t mean that Derek and I couldn’t check it out for ourselves!

Lookout Lavender Farm is located on Lookout Mountain in Rising Fawn, Georgia. Every year the farm opens up for a short two-week lavender season. People are invited to pick bundles of lavender, but if you don’t want to pick, then you can just come up to enjoy the fields.

It cost $10 to get in, $5 a person, and a u-pick bundle is $7. They were also selling their own line of lavender products. We bought lip balm.

It was a lovely morning, and the lavender fields smelled amazing! We spent some time picking our bundle, and then we just enjoyed walking through the lavender. We made sure to get a lot of photos! The fields are the perfect place for portrait photography.

Chickamauga National Military Park

I love Civil War history, so a visit to Chickamauga National Military Park was a must. My co-workers had said that the park had opened back up, and they had enjoyed their time there.

Let me just say … the beginning of our visit was a disaster! One co-worker told us about these trail maps that had questions that corresponded with the monuments and sites, almost like a scavenger hunt.

We printed one out for the General Bragg Trail and on Saturday morning, we set off. And we immediately got lost. So lost in fact, that we walked half a mile out of our way, one mile round-trip. Not to mention that Derek had already drank all of his water. So we went back to the car, bought a 24-pack of water and more snacks at a grocery store at the entrance of the park and started again. And we got lost again … and again.

It made me feel really stupid, especially because my co-worker had done that exact trail a week before, and she said the map with the turn by turn directions really helped her. What were we missing? We saw the marker for the trail where it started, but then we immediately lost the trail after the first monument.

There was a lot of arguing and a few tears that threatened to come out, but we managed to salvage the day. Eventually we just gave up on trying to find the General Bragg Trail, and we got into our car and saw everything by driving around.

The park is beautiful and easy enough to get around (unless you’re like us and can’t read a map apparently). There were a lot of interesting monuments with beautiful relief details. I enjoyed seeing the different cabins, some that were turned into on-site hospitals.

We were there all morning, and we only saw about half of the park. I would like to come back and explore more. Plus, the Visitor’s Center was closed, so I’d like to see that next time.

The Battle of Chickamauga was fought September 18–20, 1863. The Union lost, but they retreated to Chattanooga, where they would win a series of battles in November.

An afternoon in South Pittsburg

Our pots and frying pans all seemed to lose their non-stick coating all at once, making it really frustrating to cook. We have been looking at different cookware options but couldn’t settle on anything.

I looked into Lodge Cast Iron, which is a nation wide brand, made right here in Tennessee.

Cast iron seemed like a great alternative, one that would last a long time, and I thought it would be a good thing to support a local brand.

Since Lodge Cast Iron’s foundry and main store are only 40 minutes away, in South Pittsburg, I looked into what else we could do for the afternoon.

We arrived in South Pittsburg right before lunch, and enjoyed a few minutes walking around what looked like their “main street” (actually called Cedar Ave.) and snapped some photos. There were some stores open, but we did not stop in.

South Pittsburg is home to the National Cornbread Festival, held every April. This year’s festival was cancelled due to the coronavirus. I would like to visit again for next year’s festival, if possible.

For lunch, we had originally planned to each lunch at a to-go coffee shop called Dragging Canoe. Repurposed in an old bank drive-through building, you can only walk up to the to-go window to order, and eat outside. We thought this was a perfect option in order to stay safer and keep our social distance. However, it was closed for the holiday weekend!

Instead, we ended up at Stevarinos, an Italian restaurant. I had a delicious Mediterranean pizza. Everyone wore masks, us included while we ordered, and the tables were all spread far apart. It worked as a plan B.

After lunch, we headed to the Lodge Cast Iron store. We bought two pans, a small one and a large one, and a dutch oven. For the dutch oven, and the larger pan, we bought factory seconds, meaning that there was a small imperfection in the casting, but it will still work just as fine. We saved a few dollars that way. The larger pan has a neat buffalo nickel design on the back.

Our last stop before going home was to stop at the edge of the river and snap a quick photo of the Shelby Rhinehart Bridge. We took that bridge home, into New Hope, Tennessee, instead of the highway, and we enjoyed some great views of the mountains around Nickajack Lake.

South Pittsburg1 — Derek on Cedar Ave. We decided to keep our masks on for the photos so we could remember these crazy pandemic times!

South Pittsburg9 — Stevarinos, where we had lunch.

South Pittsburg8 — This Mediterranean pizza was so good!

South Pittsburg15 — Yes, I am smiling under my mask!

South Pittsburg16 — A pretty view of the Tennessee River.

South Pittsburg17 — Shelby Rhinehart bridge.

Big Soddy Creek Gulf

I have checked off another hiking trail off my to-do list! Derek and I hiked Big Soddy Creek Gulf in Soddy-Daisy, Tennessee, which is about 20 minutes north of where we live.

We arrived at 9 a.m. to avoid the crowds. We did come across a few people, but the trail was wide, so it was easy to keep our distance. We actually forgot our face masks at home, but this ended up not being an issue, thankfully.

The entire trail is about 5 miles, out and back, but the most popular part is the beginning, 1.25 miles along a flat, gravel road that follows the creek and opens up to swimming holes along the way. We couldn’t have gone further even if we had wanted to, because a wooden bridge was damaged and unusable, perhaps from the storm and tornado we had in April?

The other side of the trail features interesting rock formations and a water fall about a mile in. When we were there it was only a trickle, but I am sure it is gushing after a heavy rain.

The trail also features a lot of picnic tables along the way (we made use of these) and there is signage indicating how far you have walked.

A highlight for me was finding lots of clusters of Mountain Laurel, which is the Pennsylvania state flower. I had lived in Pennsylvania for about 10 years, and yet I had only seen the flower in the wild once.

This is really nice trail, and I might consider coming back in the summer to go swimming. The water is really clear and cold!

We were finished and heading back to the car at about 10:30 a.m., at the same time the trail started to fill up. Hopefully more trails will open in the future, and we can continue to properly social distance by arriving early as we did today.

Fort Wood Historic District

Last weekend Derek and I walked around the Fort Wood Historic District, a neighborhood in Chattanooga.

The neighborhood is right next to the UTC campus and is a couple of blocks wide. Two of the biggest homes are the Mayor’s Mansion Inn, which is a bread and breakfast, and the Patten House, a UTC building that houses the The Southeast Center for Education in the Arts.

“A fortification during the Civil War, Fort Wood was constructed by the Union Army in 1863. The National Park Service placed several war-era cannons in the neighborhood. In the 1880s, the fort and surrounding land was auctioned off. In time, Fort Wood became one of Chattanooga’s finest residential neighborhoods,” Wikipedia says.

We enjoyed walking around a new to us section of the city and mused about what it would be like to live in one of the homes. It was a good way to get outside and still practice social distancing. We did not see many people and those that we did were relaxing on their beautiful front porches.

Fort Wood Historic District0 — The Mayor’s Mansion Inn

Fort Wood Historic District14 — UTC’s Patten House.

Quarry trail at Greenway Farms

After being closed for about a month, parks are starting to open back up in Chattanooga.

Yesterday was a warm, sunny day, so we went to Greenway Farms to check out a trail that goes around an old quarry. The quarry is flooded out now, and — even though swimming is supposedly prohibited — people use the area as a swimming hole.

The only problem with it being a beautiful spring day was that everyone else had the same idea we had.

When we first pulled into the parking lot, Derek almost wanted to back out of the plan because there were so many cars, but most of those people were hanging out in the open green area or walking their dogs.

Once we got on the trail itself, it wasn’t too bad. However, I was disappointed with the lack of mask wearers. Derek and I wore masks, and only three other people that we saw wore them too. We did our best to social distance ourselves from others, but at times it was impossible. During pandemic times, people need more spacial awareness.

Part of the trail leads to the bottom of the quarry, where people go swimming. The closer we got down to the end, the more people there were. I wanted to snap a few quick pictures, and Derek stayed behind. There were three other couples there at the time, and they were all spaced apart. I took my pictures, when I turned around to see no less than 10 kids running down the path. It was actually frightening! They were all there to go swimming. I hope they will all be okay and do not get sick from each other.

We took an upper trail that goes around the quarry. We had that trail to ourselves. I am glad that second trail was an option otherwise we probably would have cut our time short.

Despite the issues that we had to work around, it was a beautiful trail. I am glad we went.

However, I think we’re going to run into the same problem that we dealt with last month. Everyone flocks to the parks because that’s the only thing there is left to do, but then the parks are crowded and therefore not safe. With Chattanooga being a mostly outdoor activity city, most of the things on my to-do list are park related.

Greenway Farms is the only place that has reopened so far out of everything on my list. Nothing else is ready to be opened yet, and after our experience at the quarry trail, that is fine by me.

Greenway Farm Quarry Trail46 — The top of the quarry cliff looking down into the swimming hole.

Greenway Farm Quarry Trail34 — Some of the trail was quite rocky and we had to be careful with our footing.

Greenway Farm Quarry Trail36 — The Chickamauga Creek down below.

Green Gorge Park

Derek and I have exhausted all of the walkable areas in our neighborhood. Last weekend we decided to drive somewhere random, to be able to walk in a new, different neighborhood. We found something even better, a small trail.

We drove up to Signal Mountain and parked in a CVS parking lot. We walked two blocks to Green Gorge Park, a skinny, but long trail. Even though there are houses and main roads on all sides, the trail is heavily wooded, so it makes you feel like you are miles from civilization.

The park is a long loop, almost 2 miles long, and passes next to Shoal Creek. There are two bridges crossing the creek on either sides (one of them is a swinging bridge, and there is a bridge in the middle. We took the middle bridge, so we only did one half of the trail.

It was relaxing to walk along side the creek, which formed small rapids and waterfalls. There was a lot of greenery and wildflowers. We even came upon a friendly cat!

One of my goals for living in Chattanooga is to hike as much as possible, so I am glad we found this small trail that we previously were not aware of.

Click to play video.

Social distancing day…? I’m losing track…

It’s raining today, and I’m thankful for the excuse to be forced to stay inside. Yesterday was a beautiful, sunny day. We’ve had a month’s worth of sunny weekend days, which is a joke when you can’t go anywhere. I’ll bet that once this is all done and over with, it will rain for a month straight.

Toward the end of the week, I started looking up possible parks we could go to. City parks are closed, but I figured that parks not in Chattanooga would still be open. People need to exercise and walk their dogs, so something must be open. This is going against what I said last week, that we would err on the side of caution and assume that we couldn’t travel anywhere for exercise. I learned my lesson. The park that we had in mind, Greenway Farms in Hixon, was closed. I was disappointed.

Derek could tell how upset I was, so he started driving around random streets, pointing out the nice architecture of the houses. Meanwhile, I got a bad anxiety attack. Have you heard stories about people thinking they were having a heart attack, and it turns out it was just an anxiety attack? Well that is what it felt like for me, except I am so used to these attacks that I know what they are. It came on fast and sudden, and it was hard to breathe. My chest hurt. I am a little embarrassed that I had a bad anxiety attack after finding out a park was closed, but this is just what my mental health is like these days.

After I calmed down a bit, I was able to enjoy the drive. We saw some beautiful houses, some with front porch columns and turrets with green ivy climbing on them. It almost made the afternoon feel normal, like old times.

Overall, the day was good. I had ordered photos for scrapbooking, so I got that started yesterday. I will work on that again today. During dinner we watched The Martian, a great isolation themed movie for these times.

Next week I will be at my new job for a month. Time flies even when you’re stuck inside and the days run together. It is the hardest job I have ever trained for. It’s not the work that is hard, it is learning the process in order to do the work. There are a lot of new programs to learn. Everyone apologizes to me because I am having to learn everything remotely, but nothing can be done to change that.

Sleeping is hit or miss too. I have work nightmares almost every night, including the weekends too, which is frustrating. When it’s not a work related nightmare, I still have vivid and weird dreams.

I am experiencing frequent headaches now, and my acne is back in full force, which always happens when I am experiencing high levels of stress.

Earlier this week, to add on top of everyone’s Coronavirus related stress, an EF-3 tornado hit Chattanooga. The tornado hit in the middle of the night, and due to a number of factors, the people had no warning. We were lucky because we were north of the path of the tornado. Our power did go out though, and was out for half of the day. Some people still do not have power.

One theme that I keep seeing throughout all of this is that, yes, we may be stuck inside, but at least we have our TV and Internet to keep us occupied. Now some of these people haven’t had that for a week, and that is if they are some of the lucky ones, who hadn’t sustained much damage to their homes.

I am just trying to take this day by day. Everyone is.