RVing Through Chattanooga: Weird Museums, Mountain Views & More

If you think Chattanooga is just a sleepy mountain town, think again. As full-time RVers, we’re always on the lookout for spots that mix outdoor adventure with a little offbeat charm, and Chattanooga delivered both. I had visited years ago as a kid and was excited to see how much I remembered, but even more excited to show Josh around for the first time. From the scenic overlooks of Rock City to a museum entirely dedicated to tow trucks, we packed our days with everything from classic attractions to totally unexpected finds. Here’s how we spent our time in Chattanooga- and why it quickly became one of our favorite city stops.

Day 1: Friday Arrival, Russell Cave, Top of the Rock

Photo 1: the boardwalk to the cave, Photo 2: this was as close as we could get to the cave, Photo 3: where the sidewalk ends

After Russell Cave, we returned to Tennessee and visited the Lodge Cast Iron Museum and Store. Josh is a big cast iron fan, so visiting the headquarters has been on his bucket list for a while. The museum was surprisingly well done for a corporate museum like this. There were exhibits on how their products are made, how to cook with cast iron, southern foodways, cast iron collectors, and company history. There were lots of hands-on and multimedia elements to keep things entertaining. 

The factory store was fun to look at, they had both factory seconds at a discount, as well as lots of items from their regular lines. Since we’re in an RV, though, we keep our cast iron to a minimum. If we had visited here while we still lived in a house, we would have done some serious damage!

We ended the night with dinner at Top of the Rock, which is part of Jasper Highlands, a private community, but is open to the public and located just outside the gate. We shared an elk burger, wood fired pizza, and a flight of beers from their brewery. Everything was really good!

Day 2: Saturday Adventures

Saturday was our biggest Chattanooga day. We started off with the International Towing Museum. This ended up being a really interesting museum! There are lots of actual towing vehicles, and the largest collection of toy tow trucks! It was also interesting that a large part of the collection was vehicles from Illinois- our home state!

Our second activity was down in Georgia, where we visited Chickamauga & Chattanooga National Military Park. During the Civil War, Chickamauga and Chattanooga were the sites of intense battles in 1863, as Union and Confederate forces fought for control of a key railroad hub. The Battle of Chickamauga was one of the bloodiest battles of the war and a rare major Confederate victory. But soon after, Union forces regrouped and won the Battle of Chattanooga, opening the gateway to the Deep South. We started off in the Visitor Center, which has exhibits about the battles, as well as houses the Fuller Gun Collection. After grabbing our unigrid and a passport stamp, we headed out to explore. This is a large NPS unit, so we drove around to the different areas on the self-guided driving tour. At some, we got out to look at the signs and markers, and others we just drove by. There are tons and tons of markers and monuments all over the park, as well as signs outlining where all the different battle action took place.

After Chickamauga & Chattanooga, we went home to our campsite for lunch and to chill out a little, since our third activity was nearby. In the afternoon we drove over to the nearby Hales Bar Marina to visit Dam Whiskey Co. and take a tour of the haunted dam powerhouse. I’ve already written all about that visit in this post: We Dared to Uncover the Haunted Secrets of Hales Bar Dam.

We went home again for dinner, and then our final activity of the day was in Georgia. Yeah, there was a lot of driving between states for this trip. We visited the infamous Rock City on Lookout Mountain. I had been here as a kid and was excited to revisit it and for Josh to see it for the first time. As cool as it is, it’s stupidly overpriced- but we found that if you go after 7pm tickets are steeply discounted. After we did a lap through the property, it was fully dark out, so Josh suggested we walk the outside parts again. This ended up being really cool and a totally different experience! A lot of areas have fun colored lights and it gave everything a different atmosphere- we’d definitely recommend a night-time visit to Rock City, once you’ve seen it in regular light!

Day 3: Easter Sunday at the Zoo

Our main activity on Sunday was visiting the Chattanooga Zoo. It’s not a huge zoo, but it’s a really nice one. Since it was Easter Sunday, there weren’t big crowds, so we could really take our time hanging out with the animals. I had a couple of other small stops nearby mapped out, but it ended up being too hot for more. We ended up just going back to camp for lunch, campground walks, chores, and general puttering around the site.

Day 4: Monday Meetings

On Monday Josh had an evening meeting for work, so we didn’t leave camp this day.

Day 5: Hiking Little Cedar Mountain Small Wild Area

On Tuesday we had time for an activity after work, but didn’t want to go far. We decided to try out some of the trail at Little Cedar Mountain Small Wild Area, which was only 10 minutes away from the campground. This ended up being a great hike! We saw interesting plants, some old stone walls from before the reservoir was created, and it was all in really peaceful woods.

Day 6: Wild Ones and Pinball

Wednesday we ended up going to Chattanooga proper twice. First, in the morning we met up with a couple members of the Wild Ones Tennessee Valley for coffee. Then after work we went to the Classic Arcade Pinball Museum. This is a similar set up to the Roanoke Pinball Museum that we visited in 2024 where you pay an entry fee and then have unlimited play. We played all of the pinball machines, but they also have cabinet games too. It was just as much fun as the Roanoke Museum! Some of the games were ones we had played in Roanoke too, so it was fun to revisit them and get to play some favorites, and others were new to us games- so it was the perfect mix.

After pinball, we grabbed dinner at Sticky Fingers. On our honeymoon to Charleston, SC we had Sticky Fingers for the first time and it was great, but this time was such a disappointment. I don’t know if it’s this location or if we just went on an off-day, but everything was overcooked and just not good.

Day 7: Thursday Meetings

Thursday evening Josh had another work meeting, so we stayed at camp again.

Day 8: Friday Lazy Day

Friday was a lazy day at camp. The campground we were staying in is right on the Tennessee River, so it was a nice and scenic place to hang out.

Day 9: Bonus Day at the Cornbread Festival

We were actually supposed to leave Tennessee on Saturday, but ended up making some last minute changes to stay an extra night. When we visited the Lodge museum, we learned about the National Cornbread Festival and it sounded so fun… but we were going to miss it by one day! So instead of missing out, we shuffled around reservations (luckily our site wasn’t booked until Sunday night!) and were able to go to the Cornbread Festival. And we are so glad we did! We had an absolute blast.

(Going clockwise) Photo 1: the entrance to Cornbread Alley, Photo 2: mini skillets painted by local kids, Photo 3: the National Cornbread Cook-Off, Photo 4: our plate of cornbread, Photo 5: our souvenir and giveaway haul, Photo 6: the line for Cornbread Alley, Photo 7: Cornbread HQ, Photo 8: our cornbread again to finish off the grid

We watched part of the cornbread bake-off, sampled cornbread recipes made by local nonprofits in Cornbread Alley, checked out vendors, won some free swag (and got SO MUCH free cornbread mix!), and even got to do a self-guided tour of the Lodge foundry! We love factory tours and behind the scenes stuff, and the foundry is only open to the public during Cornbread Fest.

Day 10: Travel to Kentucky

On Sunday we packed up and headed out to our next campground in Kentucky! We had fun in Chattanooga and definitely will come back again.

More Things to Do in Chattanooga

Chattanooga has so much to see and do, some of the things still on our list of things to do are:

• Slide down Cardboard Hill in Renaissance Park
• Get a cone at Clumpies
• Hunter Museum of American Art
• Tennessee Aquarium
• Houston Museum of Decorative Arts
• Visit the MoonPie General Store
• Check out the Chattanooga Choo Choo Historic District
• Visit Chattanooga Whiskey Experimental Distillery
• Explore the Chattanooga Market
• Sculpture Fields at Montague Park
• Tennessee Valley Railroad Museum
• Ruby Falls
• Point Park
• Reflection Riding Arboretum & Nature Center
• Hike Raccoon Mountain trails

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