Thu, Dec 25 2008 - Xmas afternoon hike - Mount Yonah (View Original Event Details)
|  |
The last part of the drive up to the mtn is always an early highlight and we stopped on the side of road to take pics of Yonah and it's little sister, Pink mtn...as well as the cows and horses near the road. After a bumpy ride over one mile of gravel road to the trailhead, we could look up and see the mountaintop 1500 feet above us. We geared up and hit the trail
The Mount Yonah trail is so nice because of the variety you get on a relatively short hike of just about 2 1/2 miles to the summit. We started out through some normal N Ga wooded habitat, and then as we moved higher, things became a bit rockier, and some huge boulders along the side of the trail. We worked our way up to the first overlook, which is by a field that would make an excellent campsite (already complete with fire ring)
After enjoying the views here, we headed up the steepest section of the trail...not too long, but good enough to get your blood pumping nad heart racing. We made it up to the staging area that the army reserves sometimes uses for training, complete with helicopter landing pad. After a break here, we took a side trip to check out "The Boulder". It wasn't that difficult to climb up to the top and we enjoyed the views and felt the warm sun on the exposed rock.
We would have liked to get up to the climbing wall, but conditions were still just too wet to be able to do so safely. So this would have to wait for another (drier) day and we instead headed up to the top to catch some better views and ultimately, the sunset.
This is one of the most fun parts of the hike...charging up the last part of the mountainside and getting to the overlook. We had fun scrambling up the bare exposed rock to the top of the main rockface.
You can see often see the downtown Atlanta skyline from up here on a clear day (as well as Stone Mtn in the distance) be we didn't notice them on this occasion. However, we did enjoy views of Blood and Tray mtns as well as Brasstown Bald (see pics). We checked out a few additional overlooks and then headed to the best seats in the house to watch the sunset
However, we still had about 20 min, so we made a quick detour to the actual summit of Yonah, just a short walk through some trees and up one last steep section. We emerged into the clearing on the summit with the golden rays of the sun shining through the trees...Megan was elated and relieved to have finally made it to the very top. It was her very first hike ever and what a grand way to start.
After a short break here, we headed back down for the sunset...relaxing on the rocks to watch the sun slowly dip below the horizon..It was a fairly clear day without too many clouds, so it wasn't a spectacular sunset, but still a very beautiful one...no sunset that you can actually see is ever in the least bit disappointing. So we certainly enjoyed it and took a good number of pics to capture the moment
After a few minutes of enjoying the afterglow, we headed down the trail...careful to avoid the wet rocks along the way. We took our time as it became darker and darker, and paused at the lower overlook to enjoy the view with the twinkling country town lights below us. After a couple of last photos, we put on our headlamps and made it down to the cars
However, there was still one last added surprise...in the parking lot, we turned off our headlamps and looked up and just took in the dark night sky, just full of stars...away from the lights of the city, and with the air so clear, we were able to view the milky way stretched out across the heavens as well as the planet Venus and a few constellations. It was a perfect end to a long but satisfying Christmas day.
Tony's Pics
Jay's Pics
Rosie's Pics
Calendar of Events
Event Places