Park Offers Forests, Lakes, And Some History, Too

Georgia can be a wonderful place to visit in the spring, and you can experience some of its magic if you can find a few free hours to visit Stone Mountain Park. The park is the state's most visited attraction, drawing nearly 4 million visitors a year.

In May, this 3,300-acre park near Atlanta boasts not only stunning emerald forests and a cobalt-blue lake, but enticing parkland flowers and floral scents. Jack-in-the-pulpits, magnolias, mountain laurels, and Oconee azaleas will be in bloom. If you walk around the park, you can wet your feet in a gurgling brook, stroll across a covered bridge, or pause to listen to a goldfinch or indigo bunting serenading its mate. And in May, the park's temperature is caressingly warm, but not yet hot.

Pre-Civil War homes and buildings transplanted into the park provide a sense of what at least one slice of life in the Old South might have been like.

The park likewise offers numerous family attractions such as the“ Tall Tales of the South” show, which activates your senses via a three-dimensional film with fourth-dimension special effects like a sprinkle of rain or whiffs of hot chocolate; a ride in an authentic paddlewheel riverboat on Stone Mountain Lake; or a ride in open-air cars pulled by a 1940s locomotive.

In a replica of an 1870s town, you can watch glassblowing, candymaking, and blacksmithing. Storytellers spin their tales from porches as you walk by. If you stroll by a barrel, someone hiding inside may try to spit tobacco juice at you. If you visit one restaurant in the town, rolls may be tossed to you to catch. And if you put some change in a certain machine, it will massage your feet.

The park attraction that youngsters often like best is the new Treehouse Challenge, Christine Parker, public relations manager for the park, told Psychiatric News. The attraction consists of a large tree house for boys and another for girls. The younsters use their wits and hands to master games and rack up points. One of the challenges consists of finding secret passages into the opponents' tree house.

The centerpiece of the park, however, is Stone Mountain—purportedly the largest mass of exposed granite in the world. You can ride a cable car up to the top of the mountain and see a splendid view of Atlanta and the surrounding terrain, including the Appalachian Mountains. If you think that the top of the mountain looks something like the surface of the moon, you're not alone. Parts of the Hollywood movie “Apollo 13” were shot here.

Stone Mountain originated some 300 million years ago. Intense heat and pressure forced molten material upward; gradual cooling resulted in compact, uniform granite crystals. Today Stone Mountain consists of an 825-foot-high granite dome, covering 583 acres. Granite quarried from the mountain has been used to construct the U.S. Capitol, Panama Canal, and other structures throughout the world.

At night the north side of Stone Mountain becomes a natural screen for the park's popular Lasershow Spectacular. During APA's annual meeting, shows will be held on May 20 and 21 at 9:30 p.m.

The best way to get to Stone Mountain Park from downtown Atlanta is to rent a car.

Stone Mountain Park is at 5525 Bermuda Road, Stone Mountain, Ga. Additional information is available by phone at (800) 317-2006 or online at<www.stonemountainpark.com>.▪