MLK Day @ Stone Mountain

Before I get started I just want to say this blog is mostly about my travels, or places I eat, stuff like that. So I don’t really get political, I have a dormant separate blog for that. However, there might be a little on this blog, this time.  The reason is my latest day out was on Monday, Martin Luther King (MLK) Day and I went to Stone Mountain.

Eastside of Stone Mtn.

Deb was off so we wanted to go and do something in the hiking way, but not to over the top. Because the weather was nice and I have wanted to go do a hike at Stone Mountain I suggested this. I will admit it did cross my mind and Deb’s to about it being MLK Day. Right here I will just admit I am no Confederate sympathizer, far from it. I had a phase in high school when I was trying to fit in where I bought a Confederate Flag and when I was a Republican (yeah imagine that) I bought into the argument that the Civil War was about States’ Rights. However, I out grew such ideas, so that is why I decided to go ahead and go because I wasn’t there to honor any Confederate heroes. The main reason I wanted to go was and hike to the top of the mountain, but I will admit that I also was curious to see the Confederate Memorial Carving,  the world’s largest bas-relief sculpture, that is cut into the northside of the mountain. 

Stone Mountain is granite rock dome called a monadnock. It stands 1,686 feet and it is 5 miles in circumference at its base.  It is an impressive site rising above DeKalb County.  Since it was a hike, I decided to get on the Cherokee Trail, which is the hiking path that traverses the mountain, at the Old Grist Mill.

Old Grist Mill.

I like Grist Mills and what is interesting about this one is that it wasn’t built here. The 100-year-old Grist Mill was moved from Ellijay in 1965 to its current location on Stone Mountain Lake. It is a nice little mill.

Entrance to the Nature Garden.

So we started our hike on the Cherokee Trail and it was pretty flat, it did pass a nice rock wall and after it crossed Robert E. Lee Boulevard we also crossed tracks for the Stone Mountain Railroad. We then came upon a small Nature Garden. It was established in 1961 by the Atlanta Branch of the National League of American Pen Women, which is the nation’s oldest organization for creative women. One of the cool things is the path is a trail of stones, each one honoring a current or former member of the group…cool.

World's Largest Bas-Relief.

At the Nature Garden the Northeast side of the mountain is clearly visible, so we are getting close. As we went down the trail we came to a junction where the trail merges with a road and it is here where you come out into a clearing to get the first look at the massive bas-relief.  As I said before it is an impressive site. For those who don’t know this carving is a memorial featuring Confederate leaders Generals Lee, Stonewall Jackson and President Jefferson Davis. The carving set 400 feet off the ground, coves three acres and recesses 42 feet into the mountain. The project was started in 1916 by the United Daughters of the Confederacy and the first artist commissioned for the project was Gutzon Borglum, who quit the after a dispute with the Stone Mountain Confederate Monumental Association, he would go on to do the faces on Mount Rushmore. American sculptor Augustus Lukeman took over the project in 1925 and worked on it until 1928. It would be thirty years before the project was restated before it was finished in 1972.

Closer look at the carving.

A course one can’t mention the history of the sculpture without including the Klan. It was at Stone Mountain that the Ku Klux Klan reformed in 1915, they helped fund the Confederate Memorial and owner of Stone Mountain, Samuel Venable gave the Klan permission with perpetual right to hold celebrations (cross burnings and such) on the mountain. However, when the State of Georgia bought the mountain in 1958 it evicted the Klan and voided

Confederate War Memorial.

Venable’s agreement. Still, the mountain hasn’t fully shaken its legacy with the Klan, but things have changed. Even though there are two Confederate memorials on either side of the lawn in front of the bas-relief I don’t think that the men who wanted to build this monument would ever envisioned what the mountain would be come.

Today, Stone Mountain is more theme park than memorial. On Monday when I was there right in  All of this shows the metamorphosis that the mountain is going through.

Snow Mountain.

front of the enormous effigy of Lee, Jackson and Davis was an artificial winter tubing ride called Snow Mountain. In the summer the area in front of the carving becomes a Laser Light Show. Back in 1996 a number of events, archery, track cycling and tennis, in the Summer Olympics were held around the mountain.

Looked like the UN.

This is no more evident than the scene at the Walk-Up Trail that goes to the summit. To get there we had to exit the Cherokee Trail because of ice that was on the rocky side of the mountain. So, we got on the orange blazed connecter trail which curved around the mountain to meet up with the Walk-UpTrail. Here there was a line of five flags with four various varieties used by the Confederacy during the Civil War (the other was the U.S. flag which looked slightly out of place). However, the people going up the mountain looked more like the United Nations than the Old South.

I observed people of Asian & Middle Eastern decent, and while a large number were White I would

Some of the carvings.

say that there were just as many African Americans and remember it is MLK Day. I will say I was slightly surprised; by I have to say it made me smile. But maybe that was the point, I don’t know because I didn’t ask, but you have to wonder that to some African Americans getting to stand on the summit of this memorial to the Confederacy, on MLK Day, is not a victory. I can bet you one thing that old Klansmen or Confederates would be rolling in their graves to see what Stone Mountain has become, I for one like it.

Gum Pole.

Despite all of this the one thing that remains is the beauty of Stone Mountain.  The bas-relief was something that I wanted to see for myself, but going to the summit was my main goal. The Walk-Up Trail is a one mile path that is rock. I have seen plenty of places where I had rocky parts on the trail, like Blood Mountain, but this trail was rock, I guess that is why it is Stone Mountain. Also, it is mostly a straight trail, steep with no switchbacks. One of the cool things I found were these carvings in the

rock, some dating back over a hundred years. There is another interesting item the Gum Pole, and yes it is what you think people stick old gum on a pole.

Summit ahead.

At the base of the trail the sign warns that if you have health problems it is probable best you not walk-up to the top. On the way up they have placed emergency call-boxes and there is the Half-Way Hut, which is a picnic pavilion, but it is actually more 2/3 the way up. So right up from the Half-Way Hut one get the first vista of Atlanta and it is amazing. Right under this spot was a row of rails, because this part of the trail is pretty steep. But, you can see the communications tower, so you know the summit is within site.

Once cresting the top, the summit of Stone Mountain, the first thing you notice is the view and wow…it is something else! It is a 360 degree vista with Atlanta, Buckhead & Kennesaw Mountain to the southwest and west, north is Dunwoody and Sawnee Mountain if you look close on this day the outline of the North Georgia Mountains can be seen.  East of the mountain is Conyers and in the distance the Oconee National Forest and south of Stone Mountain are the towns of Fulton and Henry Counties.

Downtown Atlanta.

Buckhead.

Kennesaw Mountain.

Chess Piece Buildings in Dunwoody.

Sawnee Mountain.

East vista.

South Vista.

The second thing you notice is how large the summit area is. It is about a quarter-mile in length where besides the view you will find viewing stands, cool rainwater pools, a transmitting tower, U.S.

Geological Marker and the Summit Skyride Pavilion. The Skyride, is the Swiss built cable car that goes to the top, but it cost $9 bucks. Besides the docking area the Pavilion has a gift shop, snack bar and bathrooms. I have read that from the Summit Skyride you get a close up
look at the bas-relief which I might have to try sometime. However you chose to go to the summit I suggest you do, it is worth the effort.

U.S. Geological Marker.

Skyride & Tower.

Rainwater Pool.

 As always with any straight trail the hike back down is not that bad. Since Deb was getting tired we decided to hike the shorter route, which is back the way we came. We did get to see the bas-relief sculptor one more time. It was nice to see the changes that have happened at a place with the history of Stone Mountain. So, I will say all in all it was a good MLK Day.
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