We've been counting the days until peak leaf season in north Georgia, and last weekend we picked the perfect day for a beautiful hike at Fort Mountain State Park in Chatsworth, Ga.
We met up with our pals
Johann the Dog, his sister dog Gracie and mom Leslie for a terrific hike on the perfect fall day.
Fort Mountain is set on 3,712 acres with 14 miles of hiking trails and 27 miles of mountain biking trails.
We started out on the Stone Tower Loop, which includes the rocky ruins of an ancient stone wall. You can see the remains in the top, right photo, above, where Gracie and Rocco seem to be perusing the wonders of the wall... or may they just saw a squirrel.
The rock wall spans 855 feet and is a bit of a mystery as to its origins. It's thought to have been built by early Indians for ceremonial purposes or perhaps it was built by early explorers as defense against Indian attacks.
Further up the path, we came upon the Stone Tower.
The tower was presumably built in the 1930's or 1940's by the Civilian Conservation Corps. (CCC). President Franklin Delano Rosevelt created the CCC during the Great Depression, and citizens were put to work preserving the country's natural resources to help combat the economic and social problems of the time.
Continuing on, we reached the West Overlook portion of the trail with magnificent views of the valley and mountains surrounding the park.
We enjoyed 180 degree views.... spectacular!
We had time for one more trail before sunset so we headed down the road to the Big Rock Trail.
There we found more beautiful vistas as well as small cascades and waterfalls. We'll need to come back to explore more of the paths that we didn't get to on this trip.
After our hike, we finally got a photo of all three dogs -- Gracie and Johann are very serious about their hiking! All the dogs had a blast and a great workout!
But the adventure wasn't over yet! On the way out of Chatsworth, look what we found, almost in the middle of the road!
This cow seemed to have lost his way, but we stopped and helped him back into his pen!
One last stop, before the sun set...
Along the road heading out from Fort Mountain, we took in the view from the Cohutta-Chattahoochee Scenic Byway. It was breathtaking at sunset.
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