We were supposed to head to Bald Ridge Creek COE half way through our trip, however, we decided that we LOVED Cloudland Canyon too much NOT to stay. We decided to continue adventuring around Lookout Mountain and also into Chattanooga. Before we heading into town, we decided to hike the canyon rim near the main entrance. It was beautiful and is great if you are looking for the scenic route without having to hike very far. It only takes about 20 minutes to walk the upper look-out and that day was extremely clear so we felt like we could see forever!
Lucy at the Upper Rim Overlook Trail
Our next stop was Pointe Park which was about a 30 minutes drive from Cloudland Canyon State Park. It is at the very end of Lookout Mountain. I believe it was about $7 to purchase a parking pass which also allowed you into the park as well. This is a smaller park, but the historical significance is what was the best part. At the Northwest corner of the park is the New York monument and if you don’t look carefully you may miss the entrance down to the free little museum. The museum wasn’t too eventful, but the view from in front of it is breath taking as it looks down over Chattanooga.
At Pointe Park overlooking Chattanooga, TN
After visiting Pointe Park, we went to the Craven House. This is NOT a path for RVs or any rigs to go through. It was a little scary for just our F-150! It was single lane roads, with quite a few switch backs. Unfortunately, the Craven House its self was closed, so there really wasn’t much to see. We finished out afternoon enjoying Chattanooga. We had hoped that we could take Lucy to more places, however, we found Chattanooga to not be as dog friendly as we had hoped. But we found a delicious restaurant, Big River Grille and Brewery, and they were more than willing to accommodate us with Lucy. The waitress, Katie I believe, even brought Lucy out some fresh water and offered her some fries. The beer was EXCELLENT. I’m talking about ice cold, perfectly local brewed beer. I had the Big River Vienna Lager and I highly recommend!
Enjoying locally brewed beer in downtown Chattanooga, TN
The following day we had a lazy day, which I think was needed because of all the adventuring we had done the days before. We spent the afternoon watching Lost in Space (its soo good) and I made a shrimp boil in the instant pot. If you don’t have an instant pot in your camper – you need one!
Our last day we wanted to spend the day enjoying Cloudland Canyon State Park, and just sat by the fire for most of the day. The weather was absolutely perfect at around 58-65 degrees. Just enough chill for a fire, but not too cold where you had to be bundled up the whole time. I love to craft when I camp, and I especially enjoy making my camper signs, so my afternoon was truly perfect! We were so sad to go, I even got teared up a bit.
Our campground hosts rocked and Bambie and Leland invited us back to there site to enjoy the campfire and a cold beer for our last night. The hospitality and willingness to help was so warm about these two! They made our last night awesome and we shared so many camping stories.
Cloudland Canyon was truly the best campground we’ve ever been to and it will be hard to top this experience! If you ever have the chance to stop through – GO!
Happy Hobby Campers 