The Cross Garden is creepy and gives off some "cursed" vibes but it is not much of an attraction. The "garden" is the front yard of someone's house (you park on the side of the road in front of the house).
You can see everything in less than five minutes. Some hand made crosses and old appliances with biblical stuff painted on them. Weird but hard to say it's showcasing a "dark" part of the South and not just someone with some kind of mental illness.
"Rock City begins as an ornamental garden on a mountain side: its visitors walk a path that takes them through rocks, over rocks, between rocks. They throw corn into a deer enclosure, cross a hanging bridge, and peer out through a-quarter-a-throw binoculars at a view that promises them seven states on the rare sunny days when the air is perfectly clear. And from there, like a drop into some strange hell, the path takes visitors, millions upon millions of them every year, down into caverns, where they stare at black-lit dolls arranged into nursery-rhyme and fairy-tale dioramas. When they leave, they leave bemused, uncertain of why they came, of what they have seen, of whether they had a good time or not."
- Neil Gaiman, American Gods
As a huge fan of American Gods (novel and show), this has been on my list for a while.
Rock City is definitely... something. I arrived fairly early in the day so there weren't many people there and parking was super quick/convenient. It was also pretty cool (temperature wise) which is another reason I went that early - the entire attraction is on a mountain ridge so it can get warm.
The Gardens are beautiful and wonderfully manicured. It was late spring for my visit, so everything was coming into bloom. Lots of great greenery and flowers.
The views are all fantastic. The weather was clear for me, so I was able to see miles and miles from Lover's Leap.
The gnome caverns are....a thing. Equal parts whimsical and creepy. All the sculptures have a kind of ominous feel to them - I would not want to be down there in the dark.
The whole walk around for me took 45-60 minutes. Probably could've been longer if I got something to eat while up there. Hard to say the 25 dollar admission is worth such a quick visit, but if you're looking for a unique outdoor thing to do in the Chattanooga area, you could do way worse than Rock City.