I haven't been on a family vacation since probably the summer of 2000, but now that I'm back in South Carolina with nothing to do for a few more weeks -- and with my sister in the same situation -- we decided it would be a good time to load up the Gylls family and head to Atlanta.
Today, we visited Stone Mountain, which is about 20 miles outside of Atlanta. It's a giant granite dome rising seemingly out of nowhere above the green Georgia landscape. It's somewhat reminiscent of some of the domes in
Yosemite, though not as spectacular. What is does have, however, that nothing in Yosemite has is three Confederate heroes carved into it. From left to right there is Jefferson Davis, Robert E. Lee and Stonewall Jackson. The carving is, in fact, larger than Mount Rushmore (which my loyal readers will already know is not as big as is widely believed). The figures themselves, by my estimates, are roughly the same size as the Rushmore carvings. The carving, which is the largest high relief sculpture in the world, was begun by Gutzon Borglum who is better known for carving (you guessed it) Mt. Rushmore. Borglum's work, however, no longer exists on Stone Mountain, as it was detonated when a second sculpture, Augustus Lukeman, took over with a somewhat different vision.We took a cable ride to the summit, where we milled around for a while and took in the views, which were largely obscured by the hazy sky. When it was time to head back down, my mom and sister headed back for the cable car, but Dad and I decided to walk down the 1.4 mile trail to Confederate Memorial Hall. Well, the heat was absolutely brutal and the walk was a lot tougher than I expected. Still, we made it without much problem.
We're staying in Atlanta tonight and over the next couple days will be checking out the zoo and aquarium.
No comments:
Post a Comment