Sixteen miles east of Atlanta is Georgia’s most visited tourist site. Stone Mountain Park’s 3200 acres surrounds the base of Stone Mountain, an 825-feet tall granite rock that dominates the skyline in all directions.
The massive granite mountain is more than 5-miles around at the base. Like an iceberg, the formation’s bulk is out of sight and stretches 9-miles long underground and 2.5-miles wide.
The top of the rock is accessible by a 1.3-mile trail up its west side. Atlanta’s taller buildings can be seen on the far horizon.
The mountain’s lower, wooded slopes offer many attractions. The Confederate Hall museum, Antebellum Plantation and Farmyard, dinosaur museum, grist mill, a full-size 1940’s era train ride around the base, Stone Mt. Inn, Quarry, 36-hole golf club, campground, boat launch for the lakes, conference center and much more.
Stone Mountain’s summit elevation is 1,686 feet above sea level. The moonscape surface is dotted with tenacious and rare Georgia Oak Trees. Water forms clear pools in eroded depressions where tiny eggs hatch clam shrimp and fairy shrimp in the rainy season.
A high-speed Swiss cable car zips to the top of Stone Mountain. It provides the closest view of the world’s largest relief carving.
The Confederate Memorial carving of Jefferson Davis, Robert E. Lee and Stonewall Jackson depict them on their favorite horses, Blackjack, Traveller and Little Sorrel.
The world’s largest bas-relief sculpture cuts 42-feet deep into the granite face, is 90-feet high, 190-feet wide and 400-feet above ground level. The presidents’ heads at Mount Rushmore are 60-feet high and 203-feet wide. Sculptor Gutzon Borglum started the Stone Mountain project before being fired in 1925 and moving on to complete Mt. Rushmore.
As a “Memorial to the Confederacy” Stone Mountain has garnered a great deal of political debate. Regardless of personal opinions, the massive rock is an awesome natural wonder that took 350 million years to form.