Things to Do in Scottsboro

As the aerial concierge behind Fly This, Erik Graper accompanies patrons through the air aboard his powered hang-gliding trike. Erik boasts pilot certifications from the FAA and USHPA, as well as a 10-year flying career that includes more than 10,000 flights without an accident or taking a wrong turn into an interdimensional wormhole. He introduces novices to the sport during discovery flights that soar to as high as 2,000 feet and coaches more seasoned pilots through advanced training and instructional flights. Each excursion takes off from Nickajack Lake and circles the airspace high above it, affording passengers rare views of the Tennessee River Gorge.

If Ghost Hunter Chattanooga’s paranormal investigators know the meaning of fear, they don’t show it. In any case, their curiosity overrides the bone-chilling sensation they regularly experience while untangling the secrets of the afterlife. They share this curiosity with small groups on ghost-hunting tours that venture into the shadows of Chattanooga’s most fertile haunting grounds. During these nightly explorations, they employ an arsenal of advanced equipment—including EMF meters, infrared-temperature guns, and Ovilus X talk boxes—to tell genuine poltergeists apart from Old Man Witherses running around in bed sheets.

In the late 1970s, a group of forward thinkers hatched an ambitious plan to bring Chattanooga citizens closer to nature. With the help of the Junior League of Chattanooga, the group raised more than $500,000, and in September 1979, The Chattanooga Arboretum and Nature Center was born. Since then, the center has invited more than half a million visitors to explore its 317 acres of forests, fields, and streams as well as raising consciousness with educational programs targeted at schoolchildren, summer campers, and scouts. Their efforts have helped to conserve the approximately 50 native animal species inhabiting the park, including bald eagles and endangered red wolves.

State-of-the-art when it was built, the environmentally engineered main building has remained largely unchanged over the past 33 years. Features such as solar-heating systems, southern-facing windows, and 99% natural R-38 insulation continue to model sustainable-building practices to park visitors and squirrels looking to passively heat their nests.