Ruby Falls, Chattanooga.

This morning we woke up in Chattanooga to a beautiful view of the Tennessee Mountains. In particular, Lookout Mountain. After a quick breakfast we headed to Ruby Falls, an underground waterfall in Lookout Cavern that is 260 stories below the ground. With multiple days in 100+ degree heat, a cavern tour was just what we needed today. 

The glass elevator ride down was even an adventure!  Once we entered the cavern the cool, damp feel was welcome and the mile walk back to the waterfall came far too quickly. We learned all about stalactites, stalagmites, caverns, caves, our guide was incredible. The girls loved seeing all of the different shapes in the stone, and also thinking about the 2 foot gap that Leo Lambert (the founder) crawled through for 6 hours until he found this beautiful waterfall. Thank goodness he carved out a larger path for the rest of us to get there! 

Grace was quite the explorer in the cavern...and quickly decided she likes caverns better than caves; no outside entrance to a cavern means no bats, snakes, bugs or unwelcome "friends."

A lot of the darker sections of the cavern were illuminate with colored lights so that you could see things better. This mirror pool was really cool. 

There were a lot of tight spaces and places that made me thankful that I was short. Poor Mark had to do a lot of stooping and bending to get back to the waterfall. 

The photos don't really do it justice, but we made it to the falls!

Once we got to the falls, the lights illuminated it in a way that made it completely breathtaking.

The pool at the bottom of the falls is only about 5 foot deep. The water that we saw today is a pretty normal flow. They only have to close the cavern about 4 times a year after a really big rainfall.

Norah liked being able to touch the ceiling!

We started the hike back to the mouth of the cavern and then climbed to the top to see the view overlooking Chattanooga. 

Ruby Falls is topping the list of favorites on this trip!