Hey Guys!
As you all know, my hubby and I are always looking for new places to visit for short weekend trips!
After a little research, I decided to book a last minute trip to a place called Rising Fawn.
It’s located approximately 30 mins from Chattanooga, TN.
We headed out on a Fri around 4 pm and arrived in Rising Fawn around 8 pm their time.
Our first stop was dinner at a nearby restaurant called Lookout Mountain Pizza Co.
After being seated, we looked over the menu.
We first decided on the caprese salad for an appetizer.
It was so fresh and delicious!
For our main course, I decided on the Francesca while the hubby ordered the Maria and added his favorite toppings.
The pizza was so good!!
Read reviews here
Tip: If you don’t like pizza, you can walk over to the Canyon Grill to eat
After dinner, we headed to the cabin I had rented at the Scenic View Log Cabin Rentals.
The cabin was located approx. 10 mins from the restaurant.
We entered the cabin with a code so, there was no need to check in anywhere.
I rented a two bedroom, one bathroom cabin.
Some of the cabins have full kitchens but ours only had a microwave and a mini fridge.
The second bedroom was upstairs and had two twin size beds.
After getting settled in, we called it a night.
The next morning, we had our coffee on the deck overlooking the mountains.
The cabin wasn’t private as we had cabins sitting on each side of us and one in front of us.
I think there’s approximately 16 cabins of varying sizes located here.
While having our coffee on the deck, I spotted this creepy crawler!
I hate spiders!
Shots of the outside of our cabin
And of the other nearby cabins
After our coffee, we headed to a nearby coffee shop called, Corner coffee, to have breakfast.
We had to order at the counter and then they brought it to our table.
I ordered a vanilla latte and the morning panini with a side of bacon and the hubby ordered the breakfast steak wrap.
The service was really slow but the food was pretty good.
Funny story, my hubby knew the lady that owned it…they used to go to church together when they were children! Small world!!
See reviews here
After breakfast, we headed to a nearby state park called Cloudland Canyon State Park.
The park is located approx. 10 mins from the cabins and 10 mins from the coffee shop.
There is a $5 entrance fee to the park.
You can get a map of the park at the entrance gate.
After getting parked, we walked to a couple of the overlooks.
We decided to hike the main overlook first.
On the way, you will have incredible views!
The views were breathtaking!
Cloudland Canyon is one of the largest and most scenic parks in the state of Georgia.
It’s home to thousand-foot deep canyons, sandstone cliffs, wild caves, waterfalls, cascading creeks, dense woodland and abundant wildlife.
Arriving to the first overlook
The leaves in the park were starting to change colors and made for some gorgeous pics!
Of course, we had to take our usual pics of one another standing in front of the beautiful views!
Pictures from the overlook
After this overlook, we walked to the other overlook.
We passed these purple berry bushes on the way…so pretty!
The views from the second overlook were beautiful but not as pretty as the first overlook.
After this overlook, we decided to hike part of the West Rim Loop Trail.
Tip: There are two beautiful waterfalls located here but they are short, strenuous hikes..I think one of them has 600 stairs! We didn’t do the waterfalls because there was no water running at the time.
The West Rim Loop Trail is a 5 mile loop trail that is considered moderately challenging.
There are a few stairs along the way.
You will need to wear really good shoes as there are lots of exposed roots and rocks on the trail…I almost twisted my ankle and I had on good hiking shoes!
We were hiking through the woods for the majority of the time.
After hiking for about 20 mins, we came to a rocky outcrop that had some amazing views!
I just wished the trees had more color!
We decided to sit for few minutes and take in the views.
After admiring the views for a while, we continued our hike.
A short time later, we came to another overlook.
Such beautiful views!
After this overlook, we decided to turn around and head back.
We had hiked in about 45 mins at this point.
We stopped a couple of times on the way back to take some pictures.
A few more shots of the park
After leaving here, we headed to the Lookout Mountain Flight Park to see if we could spot any hang gliders!
Tip: If you’re brave enough, you can do a tandem flight with an instructor for $149!
Unfortunately, no one was hang gliding as it was way too windy…but, the views were beautiful!
The flight park was located less than 5 mins from our cabin so, after we left here, we headed back to our cabin to relax.
On the way back to our cabin, we noticed a few other properties that looked super cool!
One was called Live a Little, another called Treetop Escapes and one called On the Rocks – Wander Chattanooga.
We will definitely be looking into these for our next stay!
Tip: To find unique properties to stay in click here & here
For lunch, we decided to make a small charcuterie board and eat outside on the deck.
We also had some leftover pizza from the night before.
Later that night, we headed back to Lookout Mountain Pizza Co because the pizza was so good!
Yum!!
After dinner, we headed back to the cabin and called it a night!
The next morning, we once again had coffee on the deck.
After our coffee, we checked out of our cabin and headed back to the Lookout Mountain flight park to see if we could spot any hang gliders….but, once again, it was too windy!
So, we headed to downtown Chattanooga where we had purchased tickets for the Southern Belle Riverboat.
Our boat ride was at 2 pm and we had to be there 30-60 mins prior to departing.
Once we arrived, we headed to the boat.
The set up for this boat is definitely different than the other riverboat tours we have taken.
You will first enter another boat that used to be a functioning riverboat but is now a restaurant and gift shop.
So, you can actually show up for your boat ride 2-3 hrs early and have lunch and do some shopping.
After entering the first boat, we headed to the bar to get a menu.
After looking over the menu, we decided to just order a small appetizer of pretzels and cheese from the restaurant called Overboard Bar & Grille.
The inside is huge and has several TV’s scattered about, a pool table, Foosball table and more!
After eating our pretzels, we headed downstairs to the gift shop to check in for our tour and to look around.
Tip: You must go to the check out counter in the gift shop to check in as they give you a ticket to board the boat. You will also board the boat from the gift shop area.
My hubby wanted to see how long it would take to get to the center of this lollipop! 😉
There was a small coffee shop located near the gift shop but it was closed.
Approx. 30 mins before our departure time, they called for everyone to board the boat.
The first boat is attached to the Southern Bell by a small bridge-way.
When I purchased our tickets, I chose the option that included a charcuterie board so we actually had an assigned seat inside the boat where our charcuterie board was already set up for us.
So, once we entered the boat, we handed them our ticket and they led us to our table.
We were seated at a table by the window.
We were so glad to be inside as it was really cold and windy outside!
A shot of the stationary riverboat from the Southern Belle.
A shot of the inside of the Southern Belle.
At our table
Our tour was the 3 hr fall tour however, the colors were not that vibrant yet.
We would walk outside every now and then to check out the views.
We actually witnessed a fire from the boat….we saw it on the news later!
Honestly, the views were not that great but we did get to spot a bald eagle!
And found our future house!
It would have been a lot prettier if the trees had more color.
However, with that being said, there wasn’t anything to see except trees and the narration on the boat lasted about 5-10 mins…the rest of the time, they had live music.
We felt 3 hrs was way too long….1.5-2 would have been plenty!
Read reviews here
After the boat ride, we walked to a nearby restaurant called Burger Republic to have dinner.
We had to order at the counter and then they brought it out to us….and they wanted a tip!
I don’t know about you but I’m tired of tipping everyone for doing their job!
We both ended up ordering the mushroom swiss burger and tots.
The burgers were really good!
After we had eaten, we walked around checking out the area.
The Chattanooga Aquarium was also located here.
We also spotted the horse and carriage rides…we almost booked a ride but decided we needed to head home since we had a 2.5 hr drive!
Thanks for reading!
Stay tuned for our time in NC!
Click here to see links to all of my blog posts
Here’s a list of other things that you can do when visiting the Rising Fawn area:
1. Foster Falls is 40 mins from the cabin
2. Continue 35 mins past Foster Falls to Greeter Falls
3. 10 mins from Greeter Falls is Savage Gulf State Natural Area where you can find the popular Stone Door hike, Ranger Falls & Laurel Falls
4. 50 mins from the cabin is Little River Canyon Natural Preserve where you can see Mushroom Rock and drive the 11 mile scenic drive with stops along the way
5. 45 mins from the cabin, see the church that was built into the side of a rock called the Sallie Howard Memorial Chapel
6. Near the church, see DeSoto State Park where you will find the 104 ft DeSoto Falls
7. See the Alabama Fan Club & Museum and the historic Fort Payne and Mentone – watch a YouTube video about these two small towns here
8. 1 hr 20 mins from the cabin you can see the Walls of Jericho Forever Wild Tract