Alabama - Day 6 / Tennessee & Georgia - Day 1

One final meal with the cousins and we said our farewells with everyone scattering back to the winds. We headed north and made our first stop of the day at Russell Cave National Monument. This location has been used by humans for 10,000 years. The actual cave is off limits, but the boardwalk from the visitors center does enter the cave overhang and has dioramas of prehistoric peoples.

It was an interesting contrast to Cathedral Caverns. Russell Cave has a large bat colony, while Cathedral Caverns doesn not. Both caves are huge, and have water running through them. 

Our next stop was Chattanooga, but to get there we had to enter Tennessee, enter Georgia, and then reenter Tennessee. Oh, and we changed time zones. We deviated from our normal chain hotel routine and checked into The Chattanoogan. It is very nice. 

None of us were very hungry, so we headed out to Point Park. It's part of the Chickamauga and Chattanooga National Military Park. Point Park is located overlooking the Lookout Mountain Battlefield. The park was nice and cool in the evening. 

The view from Point Park

On our way down the mountain, we stopped and rode the Incline Railway. At the bottom we had some ice cream at Clumpies and then rode back up the mountain. The Incline Railway has a grade maximum of 72 degrees at one point. It was cool.