Last National Park for the weekend.

We headed to Kennesaw Mountain National Battlefield Park in Marietta, Georgia, 20 miles north of Atlanta. The park is the site of a Civil War battle on June 27, 1864. General Sherman attacked the Confederates on his way to capture Atlanta. Though the battle itself could be called a stale mate, Sherman’s troops got closer and closer to Atlanta and finally entered the city on September 2, 1864. So Kennesaw was a decisive battle. But there’s a lot more to Kennesaw.

The park is really in the Atlanta suburbs, and that’s both good and bad. Though we stayed only ten minutes from the park the night before, we crawled through rush hour traffic, only to misread the sign and miss the turn to the visitor center–bad. When we turned around and had to make a left turn, polite and kind drivers let us in line–good.

The visitor center was supposed to open at 8:30 am according to the web but didn’t open until 9 am.

So we climbed the mile up to Kennesaw Mountain and saw the suburbs below. See the photograph above.

We were joined by runners, walkers and dog walkers who probably had never gone into the visitor center. The fall colors were at their best on the way up. It was sunny and bright and we probably didn’t want to go back into the visitor center.

We then toured Camp Brumby, a Civilian Conservation Corps site. The CCC boys built most of the 18 miles of trail in the park. The site became a park after 1935. Neither the ranger at the desk or the website seems to have a definitive date. That was disappointing.

The visitor center exhibits are almost all about the Civil War. But it recognizes that visitors come to run, walk and bird.

It displays three shoes: the Creek moccasin, the Jefferson Bootees for infantry men and last, the modern running sneaker. There’s also a display of energy foods for these three groups.

Home now and back into the Smokies tomorrow.