Hiking Lookout Mountain

With a name like the Kiddie Trail, you could be forgiven for assuming an easy route awaited. In four-tenths of a-mile, the trail scrambled away from a quiet neighborhood into the Lookout Mountain foothills. We crossed a number of trails after the short, rough Kiddie ended at the Skyuka Trail.

Several Lookout Mountain trails appear to follow lower ridges. Temperatures were warm for Thanksgiving weekend, the air still comfortably chilly. We set out to hike atop Lookout Mountain.

Anyone could drive up and enjoy the views. But our rental for the weekend sat just a short walk from a trailhead granting access to the mountain. With less than a half-mile to the trailhead, we had to hike. At first it seemed like we might run out of road before finding the hike's beginning. Tucked into the overgrown shrubbery along were a few signs and a well-traipsed that immediately broke upward.

The national battlefield designation of Lookout Mountain ensured metal signs leaving no guesswork on directions. We didn’t need to rely on painted slashes to know our location when trails merged. The trail(s) wound up the mountain, skirting along boulder fields full of house-sized rocks. Elsewhere we passed spring-fed creeks, with tiny riffles coming through stony origins.

The longer trails provided relief from the short vertical hikes that strained our quads. As we neared the highest ridge, further passage appeared impossibly. Cliffs at the top sported sheer faces that reached up to 100 feet above the forested slopes.

 Our trail climbed closer, giving no indication of our next turn. Yet another trail came in. A runner who seemed headed directly for us. Instead he charged directly between two of the ridges, following a trail hidden at the bottom of the cliffs. Watching his green jersey disappear, we spotted a trail cut in stone, a set of rough steps that curled around boulders and into the heart of the sandstone monolith.

Escaping a family that seemed inescapable, we came the bluff top, where a series of flat, open stone unveiled stunning views of the Tennessee Valley below. The arboretum adjacent to the trailhead was patch of shaved grass surrounded by forest shucking off the year’s last leaves. The constant flow of the interstate and trains grinding away broke up this hard-cut valley.

New sights unfold from these heights. The reservoir hidden atop Raccoon Mountain was a slender blue disc. The Tennessee curved toward Chattanooga, downtown’s glass and steel acres hidden by the tip of Lookout Mountain, crowned by Point Park’s soaring Civil War memorial.

 Sunset Rock overwhelmed the senses, once we realized we stood on our destination. We had to ask a passing hiker who wore a pack too large for a Lookout Mountain day hike. Around the corner he revealed his climbing gear, ropes and other essentials to scaling the cliffs.

We underestimated the descending trip. The trail alternated between uneven rocky steps. Inclines tested new groups of muscles. The sun emerged as we closed on the last mile. Had it been present all day, the ascent would have been even tougher. At the bottom, the miles markers made every rough step feel shorter. Our trail excursion ran just 3.6 miles.

Short or not, the bodily soreness produced by hiking always eclipses an easy drive. Every future trip through this portion of the Tennessee Valley, we can look up to retrace the strenuous route ending at Lookout Mountain's summit.