Ruby Falls

What a great place to visit while on vacation. Great fun for the entire family. It's located on Lookout Mountain, Chattanooga, Tennessee just of of I-24. You can buy a combo ticket for Ruby Falls, Incline Railway, and Rock City.

Lookout Mountains cave system has been a part of the local history for centuries, but in 1905 the Southern Railroad Co in building its rail system had to cut a tunnel across the face of Lookout Mountain and close off the natural entrance.

A local cave enthusiast, Leo Lambert, knew about the cave and wanted to reopen it but from a different point. He wanted to drop an elevator shaft down from well above. He finally got enough investors together and in the fall of 1928 began the effort. Then on Dec. 28th a small void in the rock gushed some air. This was not expected because it was 160 feet above the original cave. A small crew went down to explore the new find. It was only 18 inches high and about five feet wide. They crawled through and found some wonderful formations and finally the falls. That first entry took them 17 hours for the round trip. Leo was so pleased with his discovery that he went and got his wife to join him on a return trip into the cave. When they arrived at the falls he proclaimed that he was naming the falls after her…. and thus it became Ruby Falls.

Today only the Ruby Falls cave is open to the public and it has been opened up with fairly level trails cut so that you can walk to the 145 foot tall falls which is over 1100 feet below ground. This as a real thrill to see and experience.

I'm very claustrophobic so I wasnt sure I could handle going under ground in an ellivator. It wasnt as bad as I thought and it was well worth it. Ruby Falls is beautiful. I will go there again.