raccoon mountain dam

Terrific hiking and marvelous views! It's rare to find a place that offers such solitude and scenery so close to the heart of the city!

Neat drive up Raccoon Mountain to find TVA's most efficient power generating station. A 500+ acre lake is filled with water pumped up from the Tennessee River. When more electricity is needed on the grid, the water is released to flow down through power generating turbines. Worth the trip to see the infrastructure and scenic views from the mountaintop.

Drove all around the lake, and hiked the trails. The visitor center wasn't open but still a neat little outside find in the area, to get out and stretch the legs. Worth hearing more about the dam.

TVA's answer to storing electricity, by pumping water up to a lake on top of the mountain, at night when power is in excess/cheap. Then during the day when power needs increase with prices water is released to turn turbines and making power. 4 units generate about 1600 mega watts equal to the output of 1.5 nuclear plants. Clean energy baby!Park areas, fishing areas, trails and mountain biking, visitor center on top of mountain...

This is TVA pump storage facility amazing place to visit breathtaking views long drive up the mountain but when your there so worth it scenic overlooks and quite impressive history there are some pretty scary mountain trails that I will never do but if your brave you might love it

The Tennessee Valley Authority built this pumped storage facility atop Raccoon Mountain. A pumped storage facility is for generating electricity. The facility pumps water up from the Tennessee River to a mountain top lake and stores it until time for power generation. The stored water is then released down through large tubes where it spins power generators to produce electricity. This TVA recreation area has a Visitor Center, picinic areas, mountain bike trails, hiking trails, and bathroom facilities. There is little traffic so road bike riding (walking, inline skating, etc.) is also good on the 4 mile loop around the lake. The views are amazing of the Tennessee River Gorge, downtown Chattanooga, and Lookout Mountain. But to be sure, it's not Raccoon Mountain campground and caverns.

This cave is different then Ruby Fall as it is more natural. It takes about one hour to do the regular tour. They offer a six hour mud and belly tour were you go way inside small opening and get into other parts of the cave

I love this place! One of my favorite places in Chattanooga. It's a great place to be active, but also a great place to just relax and enjoy the gorgeous views of The Scenic City. It's also really easy to get to from I-24!

What a great place to hike and bike. The view is gorgeous and your surrounded by woods! You can take your dog and spend the day there.

We were staying at the Raccoon Mountain campground, and I had no idea that the mountain dam existed. I drove past the campground turn-off just to see what was up the mountain. When I saw the signs for the TVA and Raccoon Mountain visitors center, I decided to follow. It was an amazing trip and view from the car. The visitors center was closed, and we started the drive up the mountain at almost 7pm. The park closes at 7:30 pm, so there wasn't enough time to stop and enjoy the overlook on the east side. We decided to return the next day. Laurel Point is not a good place for a view, but is a good place to park your car you are going to hike a bit, or go for a bike ride. We saw quite a few people biking the next day when we returned. We took a lot of pictures from the dam. We arrived at 10 am in the morning, but unfortunately there was a lot of fog up at the top. The view from the dam was still amazing, but the view from the east overlook turned out to be non-existent and we did not get to see the amazing view of Chattanooga I had glimpsed the day before.There were no crowds, so it was very serene.

Loved how green all the scenery was. The roads were in perfect condition and the top of the mountain where the resevoir was awesome to drive around in your car. If you are scared of heights, beware. There is a road area at the resevoir that slopes steeply on both sides! It is very safe though.

Get off the beaten path and take a drive up to the Raccoon Mountain Dam. The views are gorgeous, and the trails are inviting. We had the place to ourselves and had a lovely walk through the picnic area. There are great bicycle trails. The visitor center was closed when we were there, but the volunteers were at the picnic area helping visitors.

Raccoon Mountain was a very cool place! This unique lake atop the Tennessee River Gorge was absolutely amazing. The views were breathtaking. We were greeted by a park volunteer, Mr. Mccool, he was so informative and kind. We enjoyed the rich history of this lake, the gorgeous views and hikes on the mountain!

This was a very good attraction, if you like caves. Nice and cool on the inside, and a great exercising walk. Don't drink the water at the end. The kids really liked it.

We drove to the top of the mountain to check out the pumped storage plant. It was a lovely drive and a beautiful view. The visitor's center was a pleasant surprise - surprisingly high tech with a knowledgeable staff. However, we didn't get to tour the plant. Apparently, for a long time tours were not allowed for security reasons. They just recently came available, but when we visited, the elevator that takes you 28 stories back down the mountain was out of service. If you want to tour the plant, call first!