Ruby Falls

Yes that is right, Ruby Falls one of the top tourist attractions in the Southeast has a back door. The trail head begins at the back of the parking lot and is a park service fire road for two miles. My first trip on this trail was in the fall of the year when the leaves make that comforting rustling sound as you walk. At approximately one mile on the left is the ruins of a CCC camp. I read recently the CCC workers planted more than 3 billion trees. I wonder as I walk and look around me if any of the trees that supply the canopy were planted by the CCC.

At 1.5 miles the road ends and you can walk straight ahead around Lookout Mountain for several miles, or turn left and trace the rifle pits of Civil War soldiers which are still very evident on the side of the mountain. This area is just a small part of the land set aside around Chattanooga as a memorial to the Civil War.

This whole area has been logged, but it has been such a long time the forest gives the appearance of old growth. The canopy is a hundred feet overhead and thick so that in most places the undergrowth is limited.