Rock City – Seeing the Scenic City

This week we went to Rock City’s Enchanted Garden of Lights. This is the second time we have been to Rock City.

We have been to quite a few Christmas light set ups in a few different states. Most of them have been bigger than Rock City, but I think Rock City holds up to the others!

There was one initial disappointment. I was looking forward all night to taking a photo of the star on top of the waterfall, from the little balcony that juts out off to the side.

Turns out, we completely bypassed that area. The waterfall was actually shut off. We did see the star at the top and off to the side, though.

We went through the whole thing and ended up at the exit, and I said, “But what about the view of the waterfall????” At first I thought that we had missed an entire section, but that wasn’t possible because there were workers guiding us down the paths at each section.

Later that night, I was still concerned about it, so I watched YouTube walk through videos! When I realized that yes, we did see the whole thing, I felt better. But honestly, I think this is a missed opportunity on Rock City’s part!

My favorite section was the Arctic Kingdom, which was filled with penguins. There were tons of string lights there, and they were all in frosty colors like blue, purple and green, which just happens to be all my favorite colors. It was so pretty there.

We also enjoyed the view of the city lights from Lover’s Leap, and the synchronized lights to music in the Magic Forest. The synchronized lights reminded me of the lights in Hershey Park, Pennsylvania, which we have seen many times.

There were social distancing measures in place as usual. Tickets have to be bought online, where a timed entry is reserved. In certain spots where distancing was difficult, masks were required.

This was a nice holiday themed outing, and I recommend it to anyone looking for something festive to do in the Chattanooga area.

My parents visited us for a long weekend and we did a lot of outdoor activities in an effort to try and stay safe.

Advertisements all across the south say to “See Rock City.” It’s been ingrained in my brain so much that I accidentally call the attraction “See Rock City,” when I’m supposed to drop the See. But now I can say that yes, I have seen it!

Rock City is at the top of Lookout Mountain in Georgia, and it features a 3/4 of a mile trail. The trail meanders through different themed areas featuring gardens and scenic views. You can sort of get a feel for what you are going to experience by looking at the website, but we truly did not know what we were in for until we experienced it ourselves.

Because of the pandemic, and a poorly timed computer update, our experience wasn’t exactly the best, but I can’t see how social distancing at Rock City is even possible. They are offering timed entry every 15 minutes. When I bought the tickets, we were the only four at 8:45. However, there was a computer update which backed up the 8:30, 8:45 and 9 a.m. entries. Even though we went to Rock City on a Friday morning, there were still so many people. At first we tried really hard to keep our distance from others but it was impossible. I wasn’t exactly happy about it, but we eventually just had to let our guard down a little and weave in and out of the other people as best as possible. We wore masks, but hardly anyone else did.

Some of my favorite parts of Rock City were the swinging bridge, the rainbow room and of course the view from Lover’s Leap. There are different shops and restaurants at the beginning of the trail, and some in the middle as well, around Lover’s Leap.

We went on a cloudy morning, and the Saharan dust cloud was approaching, so we did not have the best, clearest views. This is just an excuse to come back, maybe in the fall. Rock City is definitely something I would do again, and my parents agreed. They offer different types of events throughout the year. I am most looking forward to Enchanted Garden of Lights, which is their Christmastime event. You go at night and walk through the trail to see the Christmas lights.

Rock City33 — There were a lot of cute, whimsical doors to walk through, which signified different sections of the trail.

Rock City42 — The swinging bridge. There is an alternative, stone bridge if you are scared!

Rock City57 — We probably did not see all seven states on this cloudy day …

Rock City62 — At the top of Lover’s Leap.

Rock City86 — Posing with Lover’s Leap in the background.

Rock City109 — Fairyland Caverns featured scenes from fairy tales. Here is Little Red Riding Hood.

Rock City114 — Mother Goose Village, featuring scenes from different nursery rhymes.

Rock City72 — Can you make it through “Fat Man’s Squeeze?”