4 places in Lakesite · 6 more worth the drive below · the Chattanooga metro area
Lakesite is one of the quieter corners — here's what's here, surfaced well, plus what's worth crossing town for.
Editor's picks elsewhere in the Chattanooga metro area, with the honest drive time. Everything here is inside the the Chattanooga metro area area — distance is just context.
⊙32 min drive
Opened in 1952 in a 1905 classical-revival mansion atop an 80-foot bluff, the museum now spans three connected buildings — the original mansion, a 1975 Brutalist wing, and a 2005 Randall Stout addition.
Two riverfront buildings on the downtown Tennessee River — River Journey traces water from Appalachian headwaters to the Gulf, Ocean Journey houses sharks, rays, and tropical reef life.
⊙34 min drive
Venue featuring a butcher shop & a modern, brick-walled American cafe for lunch, dinner & cocktails.
⊙40 min drive
A glass-front elevator drops 260 feet inside Lookout Mountain to a 63-foot underground waterfall Leo Lambert discovered in 1928 while drilling a tourist tunnel and named for his wife Ruby.
An 1895 funicular climbing Lookout Mountain at a 72.7% grade — among the world's steepest passenger railways — from St. Elmo's depot to Point Park, run today by Chattanooga's transit authority.
⊙47 min drive
Garnet and Frieda Carter opened this Lookout Mountain garden trail in 1932, threading through ancient sandstone formations to Lover's Leap, where signage claims views of seven states.
