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While we were waiting for the storm to pass, we went to grab some breakfast at a local place. One thing about me, while I am out-of-town, I try to avoid chain restaurants as much as possible. Larry recommended this place called “Hungry House”. Conveniently, it was right up the street from his house.

It was good food at a cheap price. The owner was a funny, older man. He was working the counter near our table and joking around with us here and there. As we were enjoying our breakfast (french toast was my breakfast of choice), we pulled out our smartie phones for things to do in the area.

We came across Ruby Falls, take a cave down to the largest underground waterfall in the US. Sounds right up our alley. For Ruby Falls you could also go see Rock City for a little bit more $$$. Sadly, the coolest thing they had that we wanted to do opens back up in February. There is an inclined train that runs up the mountain. Oh well, just another reason to go back!

We got to Ruby Falls and purchased our tickets for that and Rock City.

Ruby Falls was very cool. If you are ever in the Chattanooga area, I highly recommend checking it out. Back in September, Sam and I did a weekend trip up to the Chatta area for some white water rafting, caving and zip lining. The caving we did then was more intense. The hard-core stuff where you wear head lamps, knee pads; climbing up ropes, dropping through small holes, crawling through little spaces. (eventually I will post about that trip and go into more detail about the caving experience).

Ruby Falls, was not that kind of caving. The beginning of the tour started in the gift shop, we were directed to an elevator that took us about 260 ft down. Once down in the cave, you watch a brief video on the history of the falls. How it was discovered, how it got its name, that type of stuff.

The Cave to Ruby Falls

From there we were led by a guide down the cave until we reached the water fall, which is 1120 feet below ground. When the group all gets down there, the guide starts the falls light show. Pretty spectacular show. They have it set up to where you can walk to the back side of the falls and look up it. The force of the wind is crazy. I figured there would be a little puff of wind here and there, not so much.

Ruby Falls

We made our way out of the cave and headed up to the observation area. From there you could see on forever, at least it felt that way. The rain had stopped at this point, we were pretty happy about that! Granted the picture I am posting below shows our heads are in the clouds. To the left, clouds, to the right and straight on, pretty much clear.

From Ruby Falls it was on to Rock City!

This was a fun little place. The beauty of the rocks, little streams flowing through the rocks, another big waterfall was all so relaxing and scenic. We took a lot of pictures here and had a blast climbing around the rocks and passageways. There is a lot to describe about this place but it is mostly all summed up in the sentence above. I’m posting a few here but all the pictures on the ole Flickr account.

Me and Colin (aka, The Doctor)

Rainbow Hall

Closer shot