Brett and I headed up to Atlanta the week before Christmas week. It was going to be much colder (high of 40 and lows in the teens) than last year’s visit but we brought plenty of warm clothes. My sister and her husband came over for a night and we spent a morning at Stone Mountain Park. I had not been to the park since 2011. It was really cold so there wasn’t a lot of people here (and it was a weekday).
One of the attractions here is the carving into the mountain stone of several Confederate figures as well as the big beautiful wooded park. You can read more about the carving here. There’s a lot of controversy over the carving and the history that the park represents. There are groups that are trying to change that but it’s been a slow process. You can read about it here.
My sister and I posing on the lawn. Many years ago when I lived in Atlanta I climbed the mountain several times. There’s a winding path up one side of the mountain to walk up.
There’s a small (tourist) village in the park that was all decorated for Christmas. Even the dinosaurs were decked out in holiday scarves. Since it was a cold weekday the village was closed but it was nice to walk around in the quiet.
It’s beautiful here in the park, right outside of the city. There’s hiking trails and a big lake for swimming in the summer. After lunch nearby, Debbie and her husband were on their way back to Birmingham.
After lunch Brett and I went out looking for some new parks to walk around for the afternoon. We found an old one that we had never been to. Just off a busy road in Atlanta, the Blue Heron Nature Preserve was a small pretty park with Nancy Creek running through it.
We were working our way towards downtown to try a new pizza place but still had an hour to kill so we found another “new to us” park on the way. The Reservoir Overlook at the Bellwood Quarry was a small park but we were able to walk around for a while and got a view of downtown right before sunset.
We spent 4 days hiking around in the cold weather so more to come.
