Stone Mountain

This trip marked our third consecutive Thanksgiving camping trip, starting with the Grand Canyon and followed by the Smoky Mountains. How does Stone Mountain stack up against these two epic NPS sites, and how is Stone Mountain transformed into Snow Mountain? Read more to find out!

We booked Stone Mountain a full year in advance to be sure we got our site. We really didn’t know what to expect. After a slow travel day due to the holiday, we arrived Wednesday afternoon. Our site was in the “M” loop, a red site. We had full hookups, a lot of trees, and a view of the lake. A short walk took us to the very cool playground, a nice grassy field, and a massive pavilion. In season, there is also a pool and water activities on the lake. The spacious sites, abundant trees, lake view, and amenities combined to make the Stone Mountain Campground among our favorite campgrounds we’ve been to. Our loop had an older comfort station. The nicer comfort stations were on the ‘F’, ‘C’, ‘D’, and ‘N’ loops. 

For Thanksgiving, we hauled our Weber Kettle Grill and made an amazing turkey following the guidance of amazingribs.com. We spatchcocked the bird, salted it two days in advance, dusted it with an herb blend, grilled at 325 indirectly with peach wood and made a pan gravy under the turkey. Whew. 

Instead of falling into a food coma, we headed to the Walk-Up Trail. This trail is a 1.1 mile, 700 foot ascend, to the summit of Stone Mountain. Stone Mountain is one rock, made of 98% granite, and is the largest granite rock in the world. The walk to the summit is a moderate hike and gets a lot of use. This trail is an out and back; After appreciating the view, we hiked 1.1 miles and 700 feet back down. Some take the sky lift up and walk down, or vice versa. However, this plan will leave you with a 1.5 mile walk to your car. 

On Friday, we again decided to #optoutside with early reservations for Snow Mountain. Stone Mountain Park builds snow tubing runs each November though February. There are two runs available: a single or double tube, or a large tube that can accommodate up to eight riders. A ticket gets you access for two hours, and we rode non-stop for the two hours. A good portion of the walk to the top of the run is aided by a moving sidewalk. However you will have to drag a single or double tube up a portion of the run, so it is a bit of a workout. We struggled deciding how to dress for Snow Mountain and ended up overdressing. Unlike playing in snow, you don’t ever come in contact with the snow and therefore stay dry. We arrived dressed to play in the snow, but by the end our our time block it was approaching 60 degrees and we were shedding layers. Along with Snow Mountain access, we also bought tickets for Stone Mountain Christmas attractions. 

An insider tip that we learned by calling the campground: if you buy your attractions tickets at the campground, you get ‘two days of fun for the price of one’. This doesn’t apply to Snow Mountain, which you do need to book in advance as the sessions do book up. We stayed busy all afternoon on Friday as well as Saturday morning with the attractions. We rode the scenic railroad twice, played adventure golf, saw Rudolph in the 4D theater, played in the Dinotorium several times, rode the summit skyride, and enjoyed the holiday lights that illuminated the Christmas village. There was also maybe a dozen shows that we didn’t have time to see. 

After we had our fill of the attractions, we decided to climb the Walk-Up trail again and played at the park playground, which was newly renovated. 

There was so much of the park that we didn’t do and we can’t wait to visit again. There are more trails to walk, biking around the mountain, water activities on the lake, and festivals and events throughout the year. Now we just have to figure out if a return visit is in the plans for next year. But first - Cricket Camping in December!