It was a pleasant spring afternoon in March of 2011. The lovely weather ignited a fire in me to hit the road. I conveyed my strong urge to “go somewhere” to my sweet hubby that evening. He nodded positively and asked me to plan. My plan was ready even before our discussion. The weekend came and we were on the route to Lookout Mountain.
It is a tourist attraction approximately 122 miles from Atlanta. After driving for around two and the half hours, we finally reached the plains down below the mountain. The narrow winding road towards the top was passing through the woods. Some trees had donned the green robe to welcome spring. But some late - bloomers were still naked reminiscing about the winter. We were moving real slow as the road was narrow complete with some blind curves. That gave us a good opportunity to enjoy the view in the woods.
The garden was decorated in all-things green for the Irish festival St. Patrick’s Day. We completed the entrance formalities and stepped in the world of giant rocks surrounded by tall trees and bushes. Our first encounter was with Needle’s Eye. It was an extremely narrow path squeezed between two giant rocks. At first glance I couldn’t even believe that a normal-sized human being could pass through it. A couple ahead of us must be in the same dilemma. Finally all four of us gathered courage and moved ahead. At one point the path was so narrow that it indeed reminded me of a needle’s eye. That was a close shave!!
The Needle’s Eye took us to an open rocky space. Here we noticed the bird feeders similar to the famous Rock City barns were hanging from trees. We were moving on winding rocky paths towards the Lover's Leap. This entire path was full of astonishing naturally formed rock structures like Goblin’s Underpass, Mushroom Rock, Shelter Rock, Fat Man Squeeze, Tortoise Shell Rock etc.
We had to cross a hanging bridge to reach the top. It is named as Swing-a-Long Bridge. The bridge was indeed swinging as people were walking and that was quite dreadful. Somehow I crossed it. My courage (!) got rewarded in the form of an awesome view of the valley and a gorgeous statue of an eagle. The houses located down in the plains were looking like doll houses. The climate was clear and the view of quite a few hundred miles was clearly visible from the top. This cliff is known as a Lover’s Leap. The legend goes like a Native American man was in love with a woman from a rival tribe. He was thrown from this point when their relationship was discovered. The woman committed suicide by plunging from the same point. The point was named as Lover’s Leap later on. Total Bollywood style melodrama!! World is indeed round!!!
Claims are made that one can see seven states (namely Tennessee, Kentucky, Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia and Alabama) from Lover’s Leap. This has not been proven scientifically. But everybody loves to trust such lore and Americans are no exception to this. So people flock here. Seven states or single state; no doubt that the view is splendid!! There is a marker showing which state is visible in which direction along with the distance from this point. The flags of these states (Yes, they have unique flag for each state here) are also raised in the flag court. A man made waterfall, known as High Falls is another attraction of this place. The waterfall is approximately 140 feet tall.
But the highlight of this place would be Fairyland Caverns in my opinion. It is a cave like structure with dim dreamy lighting. Genome statues are placed in the passageway that leads to a completely dark chamber. Here we saw the scenes from various fairytales depicted using genomes. At the end of the chamber, there is a huge exhibit of such scenes. It is named as Mother Goose Village. It was really a sweet exhibit reminding everybody of their childhood. All these statues were imported from Germany when this estate was set up.
Overall it is a nice one day getaway destination.
