Glen Falls is near Chattanooga, or maybe you’d say in Chattanooga, TN. The Glen Falls Parking area is in Tennessee but the trail to Glen Falls keeps going into Georgia, making this one a little confusing or amusing. Glen Falls itself however is about a half a mile from the trailhead and parking area on the TN side and firmly within TN. My biggest issues getting here were driving through the problematic traffic of Chattanooga and then there was a struggle to find a parking space at the trailhead. When I arrived, going uphill on a steep section of TN-58 as it gained elevation onto Lookout Mountain, all of the half dozen or so parking spaces were full and there was no shoulder to park on elsewhere (legally). For legal purposes, we won’t talk about how I handled that, but suffice to say I got to the trailhead and wish anyone the best when you pull up looking for a space.
The trail immediately thrilled me with dense and lush vegetation, featuring lots of vines and broad leaves everywhere. The hike starts as a downward march and quickly lands you at a decorative bridge that is built on the pool from Glen Falls. This is where one figures out that Glen Falls is at an awkward angle to the bridge and trail, but that the water is only ankle deep in the pool, so for the best view I recommend taking off your shoes and walking in! Chances are in summer people come here to intentionally splash around in the water.
This is however not the end of what you’ll find. If you’re standing at Glen Falls and look up you’ll see a small cave like area to explore and a trail spur heads up to it from not far beyond the fall. When you get up to the cave you’re rewarded with another vantage point of Glen Falls. I also climbed down the rocks from Glen Falls following the water to find what I’m just going to call Lower Glen Falls, as seen here.
There’s one more thing which I didn’t get to fully experience, but caught a glimpse of. When I was struggling to find parking I had to drive farther up TN-58 and veer right onto the Ochs Hwy, or whatever it is called, but basically not far uphill from the Glen Falls trailhead and parking area. There’s a very sharp bend in the road and there was a roadside waterfall coming off of it, which I presume was part of the water that eventually becomes Glen Falls. Parking and timing were not going to be kind to me so I didn’t stop, but if you want to hunt this down it should be somewhere near GPS coordinates 34.9880159,-85.347472.
